To protect immigrants from deportation, Mayor Bill de Blasio should instruct the New York City Police Department to issue civil citations for low-level, nonviolent offenses instead of making arrests, the New York City Bar Association recommended in a letter to de Blasio.
Last year, New York City passed a package of laws called the Criminal Justice Reform Act including legislation to allow low-level violations like littering, public urination and drinking in public to be treated as civil, rather than criminal, offenses.
