A New York City law that reclassifies several low-level offenses as non-criminal went into effect Tuesday, allowing citizen offenders to keep clean records and illegal immigrant offenders to potentially avoid deportation.
The law, passed by the city council and signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2016, allows police to classify trial summonses for petty crimes as civil summonses, rather than criminal summonses. The change would affect crimes including public urination and drinking and staying in the park after dark, DNA Info reports. The change critically affects the impact of an executive order from President Donald Trump this spring ordering the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes.
Under the new law, illegal immigrants convicted of these crimes would receive a civil rather than criminal summons, which frees local law enforcement from the obligation of reporting the offender’s immigration status to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The law would affect cases such as Alejandro Luna, a former gang member and an illegal immigrant caught in central park after dark June 5 who now faces deportation. This would be Luna’s second deportation, the first came in 2006 after he was convicted of home-invasion and robbery. He then illegally entered the country again only to be detained on the June 5 park offense. (RELATED: Illegal Immigrant Robs More Homes After Getting Released On New Bail Law)
Advocates ignore the effect on immigration, however, arguing the law is necessary for young New Yorkers who don’t deserve permanent criminal records for committing petty crimes.
“A minor nonviolent act of poor judgment should not determine one’s destiny,” de Blasio said when he signed the bill. “Today, we are making sure that key low-level offenses are enforced appropriately — without sacrificing our city’s quality of life or our residents’ safety.”
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