Mary Moriarty: The better path forward on public safety and immigration

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Maria lives in Minneapolis with her two kids.

She works long hours, at two jobs, to provide for her family. The money she earns pays the wages of other workers in her neighborhood when she shops at their stores. She’s law-abiding. She pays taxes. She’s a resident of our community and could be any of our neighbors.

But because she’s undocumented, we’re being told she’s a threat to our safety. We’re being asked to believe that a mother who works hard, provides for her children and contributes to her community is a danger to our national security.

Maria left the father of her children because of his history of abusive behavior. He stops by to give her money and to see the children, so she doesn’t want to ban him from her home. But when he’s been drinking, he can become violent toward her, and she has called the police to have him removed from her home.

But now, Maria is afraid to call the police. If she is detained and deported, her American citizen children will be left here without their mother and will likely end up in foster care.

And even if police are able to build a case against her former partner, the job of prosecutors to earn her cooperation and secure witnesses for trial will be far more difficult than it used to be. Her former partner may threaten to call ICE if she cooperates with the prosecution, or she and other potential witnesses may be afraid to come to court due to fear that ICE is lurking outside.

This is the impact of the current federal administration’s approach to immigration. More victims.

Less justice. Less safety.

There are two paths forward.

Under the current approach, victims and witnesses are terrified to report crimes or participate in prosecutions in case their immigration status is weaponized against them. Law enforcement will struggle to solve crimes. Prosecutors will struggle to prevail in court.

The beneficiaries of this approach are those who seek to pit us against our immigrant neighbors and those who are willing to harm the community because they believe they’ll get away with it. This approach makes us all less safe.

A second option exists, where law enforcement and prosecutors are provided the tools they need to solve cases and keep the public safe. Victims and witnesses report crimes and participate in prosecutions.

There is no question which approach is better for public safety.

The Department of Justice, in its haste to try to portray Maria as a national security threat, forgot to pay attention to its own research. Its data shows undocumented people commit serious crimes at less than half the rate of U.S.-born citizens. They commit less-serious crimes at a quarter of the rate of U.S.-born citizens. The current federal administration isn’t focused on using taxpayer money to protect public safety; if it was, it wouldn’t be spending billions targeting a group committing so little crime. This administration has chosen fearmongering over public safety.

Law enforcement and prosecutors have been crystal-clear. We need our community to trust us.

When a crime occurs, we need victims and witnesses to feel comfortable alerting law enforcement so they can investigate. When they submit a case to prosecutors for charging, we need victims and witnesses to feel comfortable cooperating with the legal process.

If they don’t, our communities will be less safe. That’s exactly where we’re headed, and we deserve better.

A final point: Justice belongs to the community that has been harmed. And when people who cause harm, witness harm or experience harm face deportation, our community cannot access justice here. It’s our responsibility to deliver accountability at the local level. Our office focuses on public safety, and it will continue to do so — even when it’s hard — because that is what our community deserves.

Mary Moriarty is the Hennepin County Attorney.