Plea deals in Harris Co. may be tied to immigration status

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Defendants may have to swear citizenship

DA Lykos aims to stop plea deals for those in country illegally

By BRIAN ROGERS and JAMES PINKERTON 2009 HOUSTON CHRONICLE

April 1, 2009, 7:59PM

A Harris County District Attorney’s office proposal to bar illegal immigrants from receiving plea deals sparked questions Wednesday — including some from longtime prosecutors in the same office — about the legality and practicality of such a policy.

Four senior assistant district attorneys, speaking anony­mously to protect their ­jobs, said Jim Leitner, District Attorney Pat Lykos’ first assistant, discussed the plan with about 50 prosecutors during a meeting last Friday. Under the plan, defendants in the country illegally will not be eligible for probation or deferred adjudication, including mandatory probations under state law. If the accused lies, he or she could be prosecuted for perjury.

The prosecutors also said plea papers are being redrafted for defendants to swear to their immigration status. If defendants refuse to sign, they will not be eligible for any plea bargains and their cases will be set for trial.

Lykos acknowledged that her office is examining policies surrounding illegal immigrants accused of committing crimes, but declined to comment on specifics.

One longtime prosecutor said the policy circumvents the intent of laws making probation the maximum punishment for some drug cases.

“I’m not a big fan of probation, but the law is the law, and I think we should follow the law,” the prosecutor said.

Mark Bennett, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said the idea may be unconstitutional.

“There’s a pretty good due process argument that it’s not legal,” Bennett said. “You’re asking people to submit to other possible criminal and collateral consequences as a condition of a deal on one case.”

He said that if prosecutors use all of their resources to pursue trials on all illegal immigrants, other cases would suffer.

“And the effect on the system would be to clog up the courts and the jails with cases that maybe aren’t the most serious cases.”

‘It’s grossly unfair’

Terri Burke, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said the proposal would add to already crowded county jail facilities.

“Does the DA not have more important crimes to be prosecuting, and more important crime issues to be concerned with?” Burke asked. “I think we’re seeing over and over law enforcement turning illegal immigrants into their new bogeyman, when it doesn’t make sense to do that.”

Houston immigration attorney Lawrence Rushton said the policy discriminates against undocumented defendants.

“I don’t think it’s a very wise policy,” Rushton said, suggesting that if it were followed strictly, “everyone here who is undocumented will go to trial, and it will exhaust all the resources of the DA’s office. In practice, probably it will end up being no plea agreement without some kind of jail time.”

“It’s grossly unfair and, in my view, it’s unconstitutional,” said Maria Jimenez, a longtime Houston immigration activist. “There’s a double standard being placed on people here without documents. If they commit a crime, they should be held accountable. If the offense merits offering probation or deferred adjudication, then that’s what should be weighed, not the legal status of the individual. Otherwise, its unequal treatment before the law.”

ICE officials on board

Others, however, welcomed the discussion, including U.S. Immigration and Customs officials in Houston, who said they continue to explore efforts to work with local law enforcement to remove illegal immigrants from the area.

“We think the impact would be minimal, and we should be able to handle that difference,” said Kenneth Land­grebe, who heads ICE’s detention and removal operations.

Landgrebe said ICE and local officials “share common challenges in enforcement from our different perspectives, and there are things that all law enforcement can do to help each other accomplish our mission of securing our community, and making it a safer place to be.”

Border Watch likes it, too

The proposed policy was welcomed by the head of U.S. Border Watch, an anti-illegal immigrant group based in Spring whose members have protested day labor sites and set up surveillance on the Texas-Mexico border.

“It’s a wonderful policy. In fact, we had discussed this exact policy before she (Lykos) was elected,” group president Curtis Collier said.

“We think it’s a very good policy, because … the situation with illegal aliens should be dealt with on a local basis because of the failure of the federal government to adequately deal with the problem of illegal immigration,” Collier said. “We’re glad she followed through.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6353961.html