{"id":695178,"date":"2026-10-29T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=695178"},"modified":"2026-10-29T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:50:00","slug":"bronx-prosecutors-reportedly-told-to-keep-childs-age-out-of-sex-crime-plea-offenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=695178","title":{"rendered":"Bronx Prosecutors Reportedly Told To Keep Child’s Age Out Of Sex-Crime Plea Offenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bronx Prosecutors Reportedly Told To Keep Child’s Age Out Of Sex-Crime Plea Offenses<\/span><\/p>\n

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Authored by David Manney via PJ Media<\/em><\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

A child’s age can be central to a sex crime. It helps establish what happened, identify the victim’s vulnerability, and determine the consequences for the person responsible.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But a guide for Bronx prosecutors reportedly offered another reason to consider a child’s age: keeping it out of the offense a defendant pleads to could help the defendant avoid deportation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From the New York Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Not even cases involving child sex crimes are off-limits – with Clark’s office asking assistant DAs in a 2019 guide to “immigration-conscious plea bargaining” to “[o]ffer something that does not have the child’s age as an element of the crime.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Queens, DA Melinda Katz has told her prosecutors to “exercise extreme caution” and “not get caught up in the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors” for illegal aliens, according to the report published five months after the committee sent requests for information on the Big Apple’s so-called “sanctuary” policies to prosecutor’s offices in all five boroughs, as well as the NYPD and Department of Correction.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the NYPD has received nearly 10,000 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for illegal aliens charged with crimes in the past 12 months – and honored none<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let that sink in.<\/p>\n

A prosecutor’s office, entrusted with seeking justice for victims, circulated advice on how to structure a plea so a defendant’s immigration problems might become a little less troublesome<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Where, exactly, does the child fit into this calculation?<\/p>\n

A House Judiciary Committee report examines immigration-related practices in the offices of New York City’s district attorneys. Among the material cited is a 2019 Bronx guide on immigration-conscious plea bargaining. In cases involving children, it advised prosecutors to offer a plea deal on an offense that didn’t include the child’s age as an element of the <\/strong>crime<\/strong><\/a>, according to the article’s description of the report.<\/p>\n

The distinction is important: The reported guidance concerns the elements of the offense used in a plea. It doesn’t establish that prosecutors were instructed to erase a child’s age from every document in a case.<\/strong> Nor does publicly available material identify a particular child sex case in which the instruction was used.<\/p>\n

Even so, why should avoiding deportation be part of the exercise? Prosecutors have plenty to consider when evaluating a plea: the evidence, the victim, the appropriate punishment, and the chances of securing a conviction. Preserving a defendant’s ability to remain in the United States shouldn’t be a prize tucked into the negotiations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reported Bronx guidance didn’t stop there. Prosecutors were also encouraged to keep a domestic relationship out of the record of conviction in domestic violence cases<\/strong>, and to consider stalking charges without certain elements that could bring immigration consequences.<\/p>\n

A woman allegedly beaten by her partner might reasonably expect prosecutors to focus on the violence. Instead, the guide reportedly gave them a reason to consider how the relationship appeared in the conviction record.<\/p>\n

What a comforting set of priorities.<\/p>\n

In Queens, District Attorney Melinda Katz’s own office describes what happened in other cases. During her <\/strong>first year in office, it says, she agreed to reduce or vacate the convictions of 21 defendants to avoid immigration consequences that weren’t anticipated when they pleaded guilty<\/strong><\/a>. Some were allowed to plead again to lesser offenses.<\/p>\n

The office doesn’t identify the offenses or establish that all 21 defendants were in the country illegally.<\/strong> Those details matter, and New Yorkers deserve to know them. What the office does say is revealing enough: Its actions helped defendants avoid immigration consequences through valid guilty pleas.<\/p>\n

Supporters can call deportation a harsh collateral consequence. Victims might call it a foreseeable result of committing a crime while subject to immigration enforcement. Either way, the public should know when prosecutors make avoiding it part of the deal.<\/p>\n

Another question: What happens when immigration authorities release people who are then arrested again?<\/p>\n

In a separate 2018 review, <\/strong>ICE said nearly 40 people were arrested again by local police after being released from New York City custody<\/strong><\/a>. One man was arrested on an assault charge, released, and later arrested on a robbery charge, ICE<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Each of us, especially New Yorkers, deserves current, case-specific answers. How often were immigration-safe pleas offered? What were the original allegations? How many defendants were later arrested, and for what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prosecutor’s first responsibility is to seek justice. If officials adjust pleas to help defendants avoid immigration consequences, they owe victims and the public a full accounting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
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Bronx Prosecutors Reportedly Told To Keep Child’s Age Out Of Sex-Crime Plea Offenses Authored by David Manney via PJ Media, A child’s age can be central to a sex crime. It helps establish what happened, identify the victim’s vulnerability, and determine the consequences for the person responsible. But a guide for Bronx prosecutors reportedly offered… Continue reading Bronx Prosecutors Reportedly Told To Keep Child’s Age Out Of Sex-Crime Plea Offenses<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=695178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=695178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=695178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=695178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}