Protecting Dreamers and Vulnerable Immigrant Communities

by Thiru Vignarajah

With no end in sight for legislative resolution of the status of “Dreamers,” I am announcing first-in-the-nation plans to shield Dreamers and vulnerable immigrant communities across Baltimore City from unconstitutional actions.

As State’s Attorney, I will not lift one finger nor spend one dollar to aid and abet unconstitutional actions predicated in part on the falsehood that immigrants are driving crime in Baltimore. At times like this, to divert scarce resources from fighting violent crime to deporting law-abiding immigrants is irresponsible and inhumane.

As State’s Attorney, my office would:

• Adopt policies in conjunction with city, state, and court officials to prohibit immigration enforcement in and around courthouses and the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office. This is imperative to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward and participate in criminal prosecutions without fear of being harassed, detained, or deported.
• Expand pre-arrest and post-arrest diversion programs, especially for minor, non-violent offenses that would risk deportation of vulnerable immigrants, in order to conserve resources, foster positive relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement, and reduce the risk of criminal recidivism.
• Establish policies declining to share sensitive information about victims, witnesses, and defendants when requested by federal authorities solely for the purpose of immigration enforcement and forbidding prosecutors from inquiring about a person’s immigration status unless directly relevant to a state criminal investigation. This is consistent with legislation proposed last session and the Maryland Attorney General’s 2017 Guidance Memorandum.
• Convene a “Community Council on Justice for Immigrants” with public defenders, state agencies, advocacy organizations, and the faith community to provide guidance to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office concerning how best to strengthen relations with vulnerable immigrant communities and protect immigrants from becoming victims of crime.
• Provide mandatory training about the immigration consequences of contact with the criminal justice system for prosecutors in the juvenile, district, and circuit courts, and require prosecutors to obtain approval from the State’s Attorney or a Deputy State’s Attorney before proceeding with a minor, non-violent case that carries the prospect of deportation. Because banishment is an extraordinary penalty for committing a minor offense, no one should face that consequence without express authorization from the Office’s leadership.
• Support legislation to guarantee legal representation for indigent immigrant defendants in removal proceedings arising from criminal prosecutions. Research shows that legal representation at those proceedings significantly reduced deportations, and Baltimore City recently joined the SAFE Cities Network to provide city funding for immigrants threatened with deportation. A right to representation at removal proceedings should be established by law, not dependent on the City’s budget.*

Last Monday, I published an opinion piece in The Seattle Times, in which I explained why deporting Dreamers violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Immigrants from every corner of the world have written the story of Baltimore. They are an integral part of its history and must be part of its future. Baltimore can be the Plymouth Rock and Ellis Island of the 21st century — but not if our criminal justice system is an instrument of fear and hatred directed at communities raising families, making an honest living, and reaching for the American dream.

*This is consistent with the position Vignarajah presented in an opinion piece published last week in The Seattle Times,
and with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky (2010) that criminal defense attorneys must tell their clients
about the risk of deportation because deportation is “intimately related” to the criminal process.

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