Portland’s top prosecutor said this week that his office will implement new policies designed to stop the deportation of immigrants charged with crimes.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said Thursday that prosecutors in his urban Oregon jurisdiction would pursue “immigration neutral” outcomes in criminal cases, even when that requires them to deviate from their standard playbook for bringing charges.
“This isn’t about treating certain people more lenient,” Schmidt said in an interview with OregonLive. “The intent is to create a space that is safe for people to come seek justice.”
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Schmidt directed his deputies to “consider immigration consequences at all phases of a criminal prosecution, including charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing, in order to obtain an immigration-neutral resolution wherever possible,” according to a document from the DA’s office.
That would include “proportionate restructuring of a plea agreement or a sentence to an alternative” which would shield the defendant from deportation. Prosecutors were also directed not to share any information about criminal noncitizens with immigration authorities and not to mention a person’s immigration status in any court documents.
The move comes as Portland’s crime problem grows to crisis levels.
Murders jumped 121% between August 2021 and August of this year compared to the same months of 2018 and 2019, according to city data.
Car thefts jumped 69% between the past year and the same 2018-2019 time frame.
Critics have said Schmidt allows too many criminals back onto Portland streets with the lenient policies he implemented upon taking office at the height of civil unrest in 2020.
His office declined to prosecute most rioters in 2020 after violent protests resulted in extensive property damage across the city. And Schmidt has supported policies such as eliminating the cash bail system, which critics argue contributes toward more crime.
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Portland is already a sanctuary city, meaning city officials do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities who are looking to detain and deport noncitizens.
But Schmidt’s new policy goes further, urging prosecutors to structure their criminal cases against noncitizens to avoid bringing charges that trigger automatic deportation under federal law.
