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.

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........

© Edmonton Sun