New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and two of the city’s district attorneys went completely silent Thursday when confronted with a House Judiciary Committee report alleging they instructed prosecutors to downgrade charges against illegal aliens to shield them from deportation.
The awkward moment unfolded at a gun-safety press conference, where a reporter asked whether any of them had ordered staff to soften gun charges specifically to keep noncitizens in the country.
“Did any of you order prosecutors to downgrade gun charges to keep illegal aliens in the US, per the Judiciary Committee report, the recent House Judiciary report?” the reporter queried.
James smiled and said nothing.
Queens DA Melinda Katz (D) shrugged and muttered, "Our answer couldn’t help it."
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez likewise offered no response before the event was hastily moved along.
Blank stares and professional-level dodging that would make the folks at Globo Gym proud.
Silence, as they say, speaks volumes.
The House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released an interim staff report earlier this week, titled “New York City: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies.”
The report alleges that the city’s five borough district attorneys — Katz, Gonzalez, Darcel Clark, Alvin Bragg, and Michael McMahon — directed prosecutors to give preferential treatment to noncitizens based solely on immigration status so they can avoid deportation.
All five of these DAs are Democrats.
The report cites internal training materials, including Clark’s (Bronx DA) “Immigration-Conscious Plea Bargaining” guidance. That plan reportedly advises staff to conceal facts such as a child’s age or firearm involvement, offer non-deportable or even “legally impossible” charges, and apply this approach even in cases involving child sex crimes, domestic violence, and aggravated felonies.
"Clark trains prosecutors in her office to conceal certain facts from the record of conviction and pursue alternative charges so that aliens remain eligible to stay in the United States," it states.
Katz, they write, "advises its prosecutors to ‘not get caught up in the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors’ when considering immigration consequences for criminal alien defendants.”
Bronx and Queens DAs urge prosecutors to downgrade charges to keep illegal immigrants in US, House GOP report finds https://t.co/jjHQrdiC3M https://t.co/cggD2D7WRk
— New York Post (@nypost) October 26, 2026
"New York has suffered under sanctuary policies for years," the report continues. "Statewide, New York Attorney General Letitia James has recommended that law enforcement agencies 'not provide sensitive information that is not generally available to the public, such as information about an individual’s release details or home address.'"
And, oh man, that deer-in-the-headlights refusal to engage gives the whole game away. These radical attorneys know exactly what the House report documents, but they won’t defend or even acknowledge the practice on camera.
This is your modern Democrat Party — willing to die on the hill of protecting criminal illegal aliens, but completely unwilling to own up to it.
Katz' office later reached out to the Post to insist the DA has never offered leniency to “any defendant” charged with gun crimes.
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