US attorney general asks death for undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, observes Pam Bondi to pronounce a speech after being sworn as attorney general, on February 5. Photo: EFE

The United States Attorney General, Pam Bondihe published on Wednesday a memorandum with the aim of restoring the death penalty at the federal level and ending the moratorium on executions, which will be applied to undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes.

By Thenational

The memorandum aims to apply an executive order of President Donald Trump that annuls the moratorium on federal executions imposed during the Joe Biden government.

In July 2021, the Attorney General of that moment, Merrick Garland, suspended the executions, which had been resumed during the Trump’s first mandate after 17 yearsdue to a notable increase in cases.

That is, the Pam Bondi memorandum revokes the order of Garland and orders the US Department of Justice to carry out the executions issued by the federal courts. In addition, it instructs prosecutors to request the death penalty in cases of more serious crimes and strong evidence, provided they are legally suitable for this conviction.

«The murder of an agent of the law or a capital crime committed by a foreigner that is illegally in the US are the types of aggravating circumstances that, in the absence of significant mitigating circumstances, will justify that the department (of justice) requests the death penalty ”, reads in the memorandum .

The document also reactivates a 2018 guideline issued by former General Jeff Sessions, in which prosecutors were urged to request the death penalty in drug -related crimes, provided that the circumstances of the case justify it.

«Politics will also apply to cases of drug -unrelated capital crimes committed by cartels, transnational and foreign criminal organizations that cross our borders and remain in the US without legal status,» instructed the attorney general.

The death penalty would only apply to immigrants in irregular immigration situation accused of capital crimes, defined by US justice as «Murder, betrayal, genocide or the murder or kidnapping of a congressman, the president or a judge of the Supreme Court». The simple fact of being undocumented is not a reason to receive the death penalty.