Case Explained: AGAR: Crime punishments should not hinge on immigration status – Legal Perspective

A recent concern in Canada has been judges keeping sentences for criminals below the minimum because it would impact their opportunity to apply for resident status.

A 2013 Supreme Court ruling said that in sentencing a non-citizen, a judge can use an offender’s immigration status when considering what sentence to impose.

Recently, several cases have arisen where the defence has argued for a reduced sentence to protect the immigration status of an offender.
In addition to that issue is whether those who have come to this country illegally are more likely to commit a crime than those who came legally or those who were born here.

The answer is, yes, they are.

Numbers don’t add up

Recent evidence from the U.S. shows that to be the case and it is not likely that illegal entrants to Canada act significantly differently.

The New York Post reported that “New York state has released nearly 7,000 known illegal migrant criminals without notifying ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) since President Donald Trump took office — including killers, sexual predators and a maniac booted from the U.S. eight times who attacked an Ithaca cop with a machete.”

Crime expert John R. Lott, Jr. recently reported: “Activists’ claims that illegal aliens commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans do may appear convincing, but new data from New York state shows that those here illegally commit crimes at a rate more than three times higher than that of legal residents.”

The activists he referred to are likely trying to conflate the numbers relating to legal immigrants with those of illegal aliens, who are not immigrants but lawbreakers who have avoided the legal process of immigration.

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Legal immigrants benefit to nations

Legal immigrants, in carefully managed immigration programs, tend to be a benefit to a nation. They respect the system and respect the laws of the nation they enter with some studies showing they break the law at lower rates than native-born people.

Lott wrote: “Legal immigrants commit crimes at very low rates, so combining their crime data with that of illegal immigrants masks the latter’s higher criminal activity.

“Now, fresh data from the Department of Homeland Security offers a fresh look at this question.”

As the Post has reported, Homeland Security claims that 7,113 of those currently incarcerated in New York state prisons and jails are illegal immigrants. They’ve been convicted of committing 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drug offences, 152 weapons offences and 260 sexual predator offences, among other crimes.

Courts already overwhelmed

It should not be surprising to anyone that those who break the law to get into or illegally remain in a country will break other laws at a high rate as well.

It is a civil — rather than criminal — offence to be in Canada illegally. But it is an offence and one that 100% of those here illegally have committed.

Breaking the law for personal convenience is like anything else. Once done, it is easier and perhaps more sensible in the mind of the offender to do so again.

Dealing with those who are here legally when they break the law is difficult enough. Our courts are overwhelmed and serious cases are dropped for lack of timely justice.

Those who defend the “right” of illegal entrants and convicted applicants for status to stay in Canada endanger public safety.