Council To Field Immigrants' Crime Complaints

The Manhattan district attorney's office will create a council to field complaints from immigrants who are victimized by crime but decline to report it because of worries over their immigration status, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, said yesterday.

"This is a city of immigrants," Mr. Morgenthau said. "Our view is that every person coming to New York is entitled to the full protection of the law, and that's what we're going to work on."

The advisory council, which will be based in the district attorney's special prosecutions bureau and include elected officials and community leaders, will investigate crime that targets immigrants, like fraud. Mr. Morgenthau said many immigrants who are victimized are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation, while illegal immigrants carry the added fear that they could be reported to the federal government.

The new office, spearheaded by an assistant district attorney, Daysi Mejia, will reach out to immigrants and encourage victims to speak up. Investigators will not report anyone they work with to the federal government, whether or not their status is legal, Ms. Mejia said.

Although the district attorney's office has always prosecuted these crimes, the initiative arose after community leaders indicated that many crimes involving immigrants were going unreported because so many were afraid to come forward, Mr. Morgenthau said. Ms. Mejia will work closely with the council to investigate and coordinate the information about crimes.

The office will create an information brochure about the office in English, Spanish, Chinese, and French, and Mr. Morgenthau said translators in other languages, including Arabic, will also be available.