Councilman aims to trim penalties for some crimes to help undocumented

New York City Councilman Rory Lancman said Monday he’s drafting legislation that would trim maximum penalties for quality of life offenses to five days. The push is an attempt to mitigate deportation and immigration status concerns for those convicted of such infractions.

The federal government views any infraction that carries a potential penalty of more than five days as misdemeanors. This has consequences for those with green cards and undocumented workers, who can be barred from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and face deportation if they have multiple misdemeanors on their record.

At a City Council oversight hearing on obstacles faced by immigrants in court, Lancman said it was virtually unheard of for someone to get sentenced to more than five days for riding a bike on the sidewalk or having an open container of alcohol. But the administrative codes technically allow for sentences of up to 15 days.

As a remedy, Lancman is calling on the city to curb the maximum sentences to five days for biking on a sidewalk, public urination, littering, making unreasonable noise and failing to obey park signs. (Currently, having an open container of alcohol in public is not punishable by more than five days behind bars, Lancman added.)

“In communities of color, in particular, where quality of life offenses and summonses are almost a matter of course, it is not unusual to encounter people who have had three or more summonses for these minor, quality of life offenses,” said Lancman, chair of the Courts and Legal Services Committee. “And in almost every case, people would rather plead guilty and pay a $50 fine than deal with the hassle of going to court, without realizing there can be real consequences for them if they’re undocumented, or even documented.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito spokeswoman Robin Levine said Mark-Viverito would review Lancman’s legislation when it is introduced. “Speaker Mark-Viverito has been proud to push many criminal justice reforms including reducing penalties for low-level non-violent offences and creating a citywide bail fund,” Levine said in an email.

This spring, the speaker and Lancman’s support for decriminalizing such offenses - or moving them into the city’s civil, tribunal system rather than adjudicating them in summons court - sparked intense debate.

Lancman, who still supports decriminalization, said the legislation he announced today is distinct from the larger debate about how police and courts should treat low-level offenses.

“We’re not in any way, in this conversation, looking to change the way that people are actually held accountable for quality of life offenses or the way in which they’re enforced,” Lancman said. “It is merely conforming the reality to the actual maximum sentences.”

At the hearing, Lancman and City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, who chairs the Immigration Committee, also raised concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials waiting in city courts for immigrants. Lancman said this has discouraged documented and undocumented immigrants from answering criminal charges in court and further complicated their cases and citizenship status’. The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs officials agreed to meet with Lancman and discuss the matter, he said.

“We would like ICE to view the courts the same way it views hospitals and houses of worship and political rallies – as no fly zones,” Lancman said.