Prosecutorial Tactics: NYC DAs accused of shielding immigrants from deportation

A report from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee alleges that New York City prosecutors in all five boroughs granted preferential treatment to noncitizens to help them avoid deportation. The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, stated that nonpublic documents obtained during oversight revealed the extent to which district attorney offices limited the immigration consequences of criminal prosecutions.

The report identified Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, who has held the position since 2016, as the primary subject of serious allegations. It claims Clark trains her staff to conceal specific facts from conviction records and to pursue charges that do not trigger deportation. Internal materials from the Bronx office instruct prosecutors to omit references to firearms from records to maintain what the report calls immigration-conscious plea bargaining.

In cases involving domestic violence or crimes against children, offenses often deportable under federal law, Bronx prosecutors were told to leave out the defendants' relationships with alleged victims. They were also instructed to pursue charges that did not specify the ages of child victims. The report accuses Clark of encouraging staff to charge foreign nationals with legally impossible crimes to skirt deportation rules.

Committee authors cited an example where Clark's staff secured a plea to attempted reckless assault, a crime described as legally impossible because one cannot intend to act recklessly. Such a plea could allow a noncitizen to remain in the country indefinitely. New York courts permit guilty pleas to hypothetical offenses, and the state's Court of Appeals upheld this concept this year. State data from the Immigrant Defense Project showed 289 convictions for attempted reckless assault across the city from 2015 to 2025, including 50 in the Bronx.

Similar practices were documented in the Queens district, led by District Attorney Melinda Katz since 2020. The report cites a May 2026 email from a Queens prosecutor to an NYPD detective, stating the office made an immigration-safe plea deal that allowed the defendant to plead to multiple crimes and serve jail time. Queens prosecutors received instructions to exercise extreme caution in noncitizen cases and to consult an immigration specialist for plea deals.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a memo in 2022 directing prosecutors to seek dispositions that avoid immigration consequences for all misdemeanors and felonies where jail time was not expected. Bragg's office described that policy as outdated in a response to the committee, noting it has since updated guidelines to give prosecutors more discretion. Brooklyn and Staten Island offices were also alleged to have used comparable tactics.

Staten Island's DA's office called the report flagrantly false and patently political. The office said it asks ICE to allow local prosecution before deportation because Congress has failed to secure borders. The Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn offices, along with the mayor's office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Citywide sanctuary policies led the NYPD to decline 20,255 immigration detainers between July 2018 and June 2026. The city's Department of Correction declined all 2,852 detainers it received during the same period. Detainers are federal requests for local authorities to hold noncitizens briefly so ICE can take them into custody.

Nearly 10,000 of those detainers were lodged between July 2025 and June 2026, indicating a more aggressive federal approach under the current administration compared to previous terms. House Republicans are pushing legislation to prevent local governments from restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The committee advanced the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act in March, a bill that has stalled in the House.

The committee stated it will continue investigating sanctuary jurisdictions as part of its ongoing oversight work.