A Bronx prosecutor's guide told staff to bury a child's age inside illegal immigrants' plea deals.
Four more New York prosecutors' offices used the same trick, a new congressional report found.
When reporters asked New York's attorney general about it directly, she had nothing to say.
A Bronx Guide Told Staff to Erase a Child's Age From a Plea
The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released a 22-page interim staff report titled "New York City: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies."
The report names five Democratic district attorneys – Melinda Katz, Eric Gonzalez, Darcel Clark, Alvin Bragg, and Michael McMahon.
A training manual inside Clark's office spells out a practice it calls "Immigration-Conscious Plea Bargaining."
A 2019 version of that guide instructed staff to offer defendants a plea "that does not have the child's age as an element of the crime."
That same 2019 guidance went further still, directing prosecutors to scrub a domestic relationship from abuse convictions and to write stalking charges that leave out the specific elements ICE could use.
Katz employs what the report calls an "Immigration Specialist" inside her office to help negotiate pleas that keep noncitizens off ICE's radar.
In her first year alone, Katz's office reduced or wiped out convictions for 21 defendants, citing "unanticipated immigration consequences" every time.
Bragg went further in 2022, telling prosecutors in writing to steer every misdemeanor and non-carceral felony toward a disposition that keeps deportation off the table.
McMahon's Staten Island office uses the same approach, House investigators say.
Investigators separately found prosecutors were directed to scrub gun involvement from the official record whenever a weapons charge could trigger automatic removal.
As of publication, Fox News Digital had not received comment back from the other four district attorneys named in the report.
Letitia James Smiled and Said Nothing When a Reporter Asked
James stood beside Katz and Gonzalez at a Manhattan gun-safety press conference when a reporter asked the question directly: "Did any of you order prosecutors to downgrade gun charges to keep illegal immigrants in the U.S., per the Judiciary Committee report?"
James smiled and gave no answer.
Katz shrugged and said, "Our answer couldn't help it," before a speaker redirected the room to "any other on-topic questions."
Gonzalez said nothing at all.
Katz's office later told the New York Post, "We charge any defendant with an illegal firearm with the highest possible charge under the law."
New York City police ignored nearly 10,000 ICE detainer requests, the report found.
This Shield for Noncitizens Goes Back Almost a Decade
Brooklyn's district attorney has long instructed prosecutors to pursue "immigration-neutral" outcomes in plea deals, a practice flagged years ago in a Manhattan Institute analysis.
California took it statewide, writing immigration consequences directly into its penal code and making deportation risk an official factor in plea negotiations.
City Journal's Seth Barron warned the practice builds "separate, unequal justice systems for two categories of people, based on citizenship."
Barron argued the approach could violate the Civil Rights Act's ban on national-origin discrimination, since a citizen and a noncitizen committing the identical crime can walk away with different charges.
Barron noted that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions leveled that exact charge years earlier, warning that sanctuary prosecutors were going easier on criminal aliens than on citizens charged with the same offense.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin took the findings straight to air, appearing with Fox News host Bill Hemmer to address New York's sanctuary policies directly.
ICE builds its deportation cases on criminal convictions, and the House report shows these same DA offices made sure those convictions never existed in a form ICE could use.
Five separate offices wrote the same shield into training manuals, internal memos, and plea scripts years apart from each other – proof Darcel Clark isn't just protecting a child by hiding that child's age, she's protecting the illegal immigrant who victimized that child.
New York voters just watched their own attorney general smile through a direct question about shielding criminals from deportation, and Letitia James chose a blank stare over telling them the truth.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "House Judiciary Report Accuses NYC DAs of Downgrading Charges to Protect Illegal Immigrants From Deportation," Fox News, October 29, 2026.
- David Manney, "Bronx Prosecutors Reportedly Told to Keep a Child's Age Out of Plea Offenses," PJ Media, October 26, 2026.
- Rusty Weiss, "Tish James' Blank Stare Says It All When Confronted About Downgrading Charges for Illegal Immigrants," RedState, October 30, 2026.
- Seth Barron, "The Left's Parallel Justice System," City Journal, May 3, 2017.
