Oregon District Attorney Announces Thoughtful Policies Involving Criminal Prosecutions of Noncitizens

Official Picture of Multnomah District Attorney Mike Schmidt

Here is some an interesting immigration development from the Pacific Northwest.  Yesterday, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would consider the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction in criminal prosecutions. Multnomah Coiunty, which has the largest population of any county in Oregon, includes the state’s largest city of Portland.

Under the new policy, deputy district attorneys can structure plea agreements or sentences that are “comparable in severity” but are unlikely to cause the noncitizen to be deported.   “Non-citizens accused of a crime can be sent back to their country of origin and given a lifelong ban for reentry for non-violent offenses, which would often result in only a term of supervised probation if committed by a naturalized U.S. citizen,” the district attorney’s office said.

The District Attorney’s announcement states: the following:

“The policy was developed during a year-long process that engaged prosecutors with immigration attorneys, practitioners, defense attorneys, academics, and community advocates in a first-of-its-kind collaborative policy development in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. 

`Prior to these reforms, non-citizens accused of a crime could be sent back to their country of origin and given a lifelong ban from reentry for non-violent offenses, where a naturalized US citizen charged with the same crime may only receive a few months probation sentence from a judge,’ DA Mike Schmidt stated. 

`In this circumstance, deportation does absolutely nothing to make us more safe. Instead, it has the potential to break up families, compromise household incomes, and propagate generational inequity. These outcomes make us less safe,’ DA Schmidt continued. 

Among the reforms the policy offers is ensuring that Deputy District Attorneys explicitly consider immigration consequences at all phases of a criminal prosecution, including charging, plea bargaining and sentencing, in order to obtain an immigration-neutral case resolution wherever possible. This will not provide non-citizens with more lenient sentences, but instead avoids the imposition of the additional consequence of deportation when consistent with public safety and the safety of the victim. 

….

It affirms that the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will not provide information to ICE for the purposes of immigration enforcement without a court order requiring the office to do so, and will not otherwise cooperate with ICE in any investigation or enforcement of Federal immigration law. This responds to frequent concerns among crime victims or witnesses who are also immigrants in reporting crime and participating in criminal investigations and sends a message that all members of our community deserve to pursue justice.”

The Multnomah County DA’s Office seems to be moving in a sensible direction and well within the perogative of a local prosecutor’s office.

KJ