Martinez, Calif. –Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton issued a new policy for the DA’s Office focused on immigration. In order to comply with state and federal laws, our office has updated its immigration policy.
“It is important to have a standardized process in place to ensure we meet our obligations under the law. I am confident that with this new policy we can fairly review all options for a disposition while at the same time ensuring we meet the demands to protect the public and victims,” said DA Becton. “Moving forward, cases will be evaluated by our state legislative mandate to ‘consider the avoidance of adverse immigration consequences in the plea negotiation process as one factor in an effort to reach a just resolution.’”
Last July, for the first time ever, the entire Office received an in-depth immigration training which focused on the role of prosecutors in considering adverse immigration consequences.
If I ever decide to take another foreign language, legalese would be a nice choice. When it comes to legalese, I have a sixth grade education like Jethro…
Let me clarify. We are following the law. There are many laws and many ways to interpret the laws. Some times we are compelled to follow the letter of the law, and sometimes we have considerable discretion. Sometimes we simply adopt a Dickensian interpretation of the law because that argument is so compelling. Any questions?
Translation: Federal immigration standards call for deportation upon conviction of certain crimes. In California, when you commit one of those crimes, you will now be allowed/encouraged to plead guilty to a DIFFERENT crime (one that DOES NOT lead to deportation) solely to avoid deportation. This new policy is a cynical distortion of the reasonable notion that a prosecutor should not coerce a guilty plea to Crime X by improperly threatening to charge them with Crime Y, where Crime Y is deportable (and Crime X is not). Now California (and CCC) will actively collude with defendants to subvert the intent of Federal immigration laws and regulations. This is a dangerous “ends justify the means” attitude toward the law. Hatred of Trump and his policies does not warrant playing fast and loose with the rule of law, IMHO.
Thank you, Chris. I always appreciate your knowledge, and I agree with you. It’s frightening.