10,000 ICE Detainers Unanswered as NYC DAs Coached Prosecutors to Bury Deportable Charges
October 26, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A House Judiciary Committee report names Bronx DA Darcel Clark and Queens DA Melinda Katz for training prosecutors to alter conviction records so illegal immigrants could avoid deportation. The NYPD received nearly 10,000 ICE detainer requests in the past twelve months and honored none.
The NYPD received nearly 10,000 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the past twelve months and honored none of them. That figure, drawn from a House Judiciary Committee report published October 26, sits alongside a more deliberate failure: district attorneys in the Bronx and Queens trained prosecutors to rewrite conviction records so that guilty pleas cannot trigger deportation.
The report, shared with the New York Post, names Bronx DA Darcel Clark and Queens DA Melinda Katz. Clark's office trains prosecutors to "conceal facts from the record of conviction" and "pursue alternative charges" that would let non-citizens remain in the United States. Katz's office tells prosecutors to "exercise extreme caution" and to "not get caught up in the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors" when the defendant is in the country illegally.
Training materials from Clark's office make the method explicit. A March 2023 document titled "Crimmigration" tells Bronx prosecutors to "strive to ensure that a conviction for certain offenses does not lead to unintended and severe consequences such as deportation." In weapons cases, prosecutors are told to "[k]eep the firearm out of the record of conviction" and to offer a plea that does not reference a gun. In domestic violence cases, the guidance says to "[k]eep the domestic relationship out of the record of conviction."
Child sex cases draw no exemption. Clark's 2019 guide to "immigration-conscious plea bargaining" instructs prosecutors to "[o]ffer something that does not have the child's age as an element of the crime," because including the victim's age in a conviction can trigger removal proceedings. The same materials recommend charging defendants with so-called "legally impossible" offenses (acts the defendant believed were crimes but legally were not) because such charges cannot form the basis for deportation in federal immigration court.
Queens built the same logic into a paid position. A report from Katz's own office confirms it employs an "immigration specialist" whose stated role is to help prosecutors frame "dispositions that will prevent unwanted immigration consequences." In 2020 alone, that post helped get 21 convictions reduced or thrown out entirely. In six cases, Katz urged then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to grant pardons to prevent deportation.
The approach shows up in practice, not just in memos. A May 26 email obtained by the committee shows a Queens assistant DA telling a detective that the office had "basically made a [plea] deal which is 'immigration safe,'" while noting the defendant had still pleaded guilty and served time.
The Bronx and Queens are not alone. According to the report, the Brooklyn DA's office has sought an "immigration-neutral" disposition since 2017, and Staten Island DA Michael McMahon runs a dedicated unit to ask ICE to delay deportations. The Department of Homeland Security revealed that 16,070 detainer requests had been ignored by New York State authorities. According to committee records, the Department of Corrections honored less than 4 percent of ICE detainers lodged between July 2022 and June 2025.
Katz initially rejected the committee's May 2026 records request, invoking 10th Amendment protections. She handed over documents only after Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sent a second letter in August 2026 threatening a subpoena. Representatives for the Bronx and Queens DA offices did not respond to requests for comment.
When a prosecutor's training manual says to hide a gun from a gun conviction, the office has chosen a client, and it is not the victim.
Published October 26, 2026 · Frisian News