The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office is telling prosecutors to consider the potential for deportation in determining how to handle illegal immigrants facing minor non-violent charges, the Baltimore Sun reported.
In a memo sent last week, Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow noted the Justice Department's deportation efforts "have increased the potential collateral consequences to certain immigrants of minor, non-violent criminal conduct."
"In considering the appropriate disposition of a minor, non-violent criminal case, please be certain to consider those potential consequences to the victim, witnesses, and the defendant," he wrote.
The Homeland Security Department issued memos in February saying any immigrant in the country illegally who is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority.
GOP Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation, called it "a real shame that the State's Attorney's office is unwilling to enforce the law against illegal aliens who commit crimes in the United States."
"A vast majority of Americans believe that illegal aliens who commit crimes while here in the U.S. should bear the full brunt of the law, and be deported," he said through a spokesman, the Sun reported.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions last Friday called out district attorneys who "openly brag about not charging cases appropriately – giving special treatment to illegal aliens to ensure these criminal aliens aren't deported from their communities," the Sun reported.
"They advertise that they will charge a criminal alien with a lesser offense than presumably they would charge a United States citizen. It baffles me," Sessions said in remarks on Long Island, N.Y., the Sun reported.
The move in Baltimore comes a week after acting District Attorney in Brooklyn, Eric Gonzalez, issued a similar instruction.
"We must ensure that a conviction, especially for a minor offense, does not lead to unintended and severe consequences like deportation, which can be unfair, tear families apart and destabilize our communities and businesses," Gonzalez's announcement declared.
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