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Soros-Backed DA’s Office Gave Free Consultations To Migrants Charged With Violent Crimes, Docs Show

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By JASON HOPKINS

 

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office provided free consultations and legal assistance to migrants charged with violent felonies in 2023, documents reveal.

The taxpayer-funded consultations were provided to migrants charged with various heinous crimes, such as rape, robbery, strangulation, aggravated assault and homicide by vehicle, in an ostensible effort to help them avoid convictions that would lead to their deportation, documents obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) reveal. Krasner created the immigration counsel position in 2018 to provide the consultations and work on cases involving migrants.

“He is directly contradicting the purpose of a district attorney — to prosecute crimes — and using his office to help immigration violators evade the law,” Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI, said of Krasner. “The last thing the city needs is to keep criminal aliens there who may have earned deportation.”

IRLI outlined the issues with the case list and questioned the objectives of the immigration counsel position in an investigative report published Thursday.

Krasner first won election to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in 2017, after left-wing billionaire George Soros dropped well over $1 million to fund a super PAC to support him in the Democratic primary. Like all Soros-backed prosecutors, Krasner ran on a left-wing approach to criminal justice, which calls for ending mass incarceration and shielding migrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This position focuses on obtaining “immigration-neutral” outcomes for defendants facing prosecution in Philadelphia, according to its website.

In practice, reaching “immigration-neutral” outcomes typically means the immigration counsel works with prosecutors on lowering charges against non-citizens accused of various crimes — illegal immigrant defendants are not excluded from possible consultation, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and past reports. A foreign national charged with rape, for example, would likely face “immigration consequences,” i.e. apprehension and deportation by federal immigration authorities, upon the completion of their local criminal proceedings.

“I look at every case where the defendant has been identified as an immigrant to see if there’s an immigration-neutral outcome that is just,” explained immigration counsel Caleb Arnold. “Sometimes that means creating an outcome that doesn’t have any immigration consequences or minimized immigration consequences.”

On the onset of the new position, Krasner’s office repeatedly suggested the immigration counsel would not provide assistance to foreign nationals accused of high-level offenses like homicide and sex crimes.

Krasner said in a 2018 press release that the immigration counsel would focus on cases involving “low-level offenders who pose no threat to public safety” and that same day said his office would work on “cases that are not that serious, but have very serious immigration consequences.”

However, a case list of defendants who received consultations from the immigration counsel reveals that the district attorney’s office is helping potentially dangerous non-citizens avoid deportation.

IRLI filed a records request with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, asking for a list of “defendants Immigration Counsel Caleb Arnold has consulted with, or otherwise worked on, over the 2023 calendar year.”

The list that was handed over, which redacted names and case numbers, showed the following: 29 DUI cases; 21 aggravated assault, domestic violence and other crimes of violence cases; 26 possession of drugs with intent to distribute cases; 12 firearm cases; nine rape and indecent assault and sexual assault on a child cases, nine robbery or burglary cases and one vehicular homicide cases.

The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained the 2023 case list and confirmed the breakdown of charges.

It’s not immediately clear if the defendants charged with the most serious crimes were able to get their charges pleaded down or faced apprehension by federal immigration authorities. Krasner’s office did immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

In their investigative report, IRLI noted that the case list not only contradicts past claims by Krasner’s office, but it also gives special privileges to foreign nationals not afforded to U.S. citizens.

“However, prosecutors’ offices rarely, if ever, take special steps to minimize these consequences when defendants are U.S. citizens,” the report states. “And we are unaware of any DAs offices that employ special attorneys solely to insulate citizen criminal defendants from the effects of their criminal behavior.”

“It is utterly shocking that any DA’s office in the United States would pursue these kinds of irresponsible policies,” Matt O’Brien, director of investigation at IRLI, stated. “Essentially, DA Krasner is rewarding foreign nationals for committing crimes in the United States.”

“And he is doing so at the expense of the city he is sworn to protect,” he said.

(Featured image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CBS Philadelphia)

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Canada’s struggle against transnational crime & money laundering

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From the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

By Alex Dalziel and Jamie Ferrill

In this episode of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Inside Policy Talks podcast, Senior Fellow and National Security Project Lead Alex Dalziel explores the underreported issue of trade-based money laundering (TBML) with Dr. Jamie Ferrill, the head of financial crime studies at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia and a former Canada Border Services Agency officer.

The discussion focuses on how organized crime groups use global trade transactions to disguise illicit proceeds and the threat this presents to the Canada’s trade relationship with the US and beyond.

Definition of TBML: Trade-based money laundering disguises criminal proceeds by moving value through trade transactions instead of transferring physical cash. Criminals (usually) exploit international trade by  manipulating trade documents, engaging in phantom shipping, and altering invoices to disguise illicit funds as legitimate commerce, bypassing conventional financial scrutiny. As Dr. Ferrill explains, “we have dirty money that’s been generated through things like drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, sex trafficking, and that money needs to be cleaned in one way or another. Trade is one of the ways that that’s done.”

A Pervasive Problem: TBML is challenging to detect due to the vast scale and complexity of global trade, making it an attractive channel for organized crime groups. Although global estimates are imprecise, the Financial Action Task Force and The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggests 2-5% of GDP could be tied to money laundering, representing trillions of dollars annually. In Canada, this could mean over $70 billion in potentially laundered funds each year. Despite the scope of TBML, Canada has seen no successful prosecutions for criminal money laundering through trade, highlighting significant gaps in identifying, investigating and prosecuting these complex cases.

Canada’s Vulnerabilities: Along with the sheer volume and complexity of global trade, Canada’s vulnerabilities stem from gaps in anti-money laundering regulation, particularly in high-risk sectors like real estate, luxury goods, and legal services, where criminals exploit weak oversight. Global trade exemplifies the vulnerabilities in oversight, where gaps and limited controls create substantial opportunities for money laundering. A lack of comprehensive export controls also limits Canada’s ability to monitor goods leaving the country effectively. Dr. Ferrill notes that “If we’re seen as this weak link in the process, that’s going to have significant implications on trade partnerships,” underscoring the potential political risks to bilateral trade if Canada fails to address these issues.

International and Private Sector Cooperation: Combating TBML effectively requires strong international cooperation, particularly between Canada and key trade partners like the U.S. The private sector—including freight forwarders, customs brokers, and financial institutions—plays a crucial role in spotting suspicious activities along the supply chain. As Dr. Ferrill emphasizes, “Canada and the U.S. can definitely work together more efficiently and effectively to share and then come up with some better strategies,” pointing to the need for increased collaboration to strengthen oversight and disrupt these transnational crime networks.


Looking to further understand the threat of transnational organized crime to Canada’s borders?

Check out Inside Policy Talks recent podcasts with Christian LeuprechtTodd Hataley  and Alan Bersin.

To learn more about Dr. Ferrill’s research on TBML, check out her chapter in Dirty Money: Financial Crime in Canada.

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Crime

Trudeau’s pro-transgender regime is a get-out-of-jail-free card for Canada’s most violent criminals

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From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Canada’s most dangerous criminals are being sent to women’s prisons simply by identifying as such. This can only happen because the country is run by people like Justin Trudeau, who believes gender ideology with every fibre of his being.

You’ve probably heard plenty from Justin Trudeau and his progressive clones about conservative premiers “attacking” and “targeting” the so-called “LGBT community” for legislation protecting children from sex change surgeries. But you won’t hear a word about the victims of LGBT ideology – and you won’t hear a thing about the growing list of insanities inflicted on Canada by the policies they have passed and supported. 

Consider the case of Adam Laboucan, who as a teenager brutally raped a 3-month-old infant and allegedly drowned a toddler – he was convicted only of the violent pedophilic assault, because he was less than 12 years old when he drowned the 3-year-old boy, and under Canadian law you must be at least 12 to be prosecuted. 

Laboucan’s case – which LifeSiteNews reported on last year – was so disturbing that he became Canada’s “youngest designated dangerous offender.”  

Now, according to The Canadian Press, Laboucan is “seeking escorted leave from prison to attend Indigenous cultural ceremonies in Vancouver.” You see, Adam Laboucan has changed his name. He is now known as Tara Desousa, and the CP obediently refers to him by his preferred pronouns, leading to ludicrous sentences such as this one: 

Desousa, then named Adam Laboucan, was 15 years old in 1997 when she sexually assaulted an infant she was babysitting in Quesnel, B.C. The baby required surgery to repair the injuries.

Laboucan, of course, was not a woman when he attacked the infant and drowned the child. He is not a woman now, despite having obtained sex change surgeries since then (he is 43). He is considered so dangerous that B.C. Supreme Court Judge Victor Curtis imposed an indefinite sentence on him in 1999 because there was, in the view of the court, no foreseeable “time span in which Adam Laboucan may be cured.” The B.C. Court of Appeal affirmed the dangerous offender designation in 2002. 

They did so for good reason. Expert psychiatrists stated that Laboucan exhibited everything from “transsexual to pedophilic tendencies.” He was given to self-mutilation and even self-cannibalism. He was promiscuous and volatile, threatening to kill a female guard and behaving so erratically that a 2010 parole review again affirmed his dangerous offender designation due to his problems with “gender identity, impulsive behavior, violence and sexual deviance.” But in 2018, he began to identify as a woman. As LifeSiteNews reported shortly thereafter:  

In a 2021 brief to members of the House of Commons, incarcerated women’s rights advocate Heather Mason told a House Committee that numerous women prisoners had been subject to sexual harassment by males who call themselves females who are living in female prisons. Mason made special mention of Laboucan (Desousa) stating: “One of these women reported that while in the mother-child program, two transgender individuals with convictions for pedophilia, Madilyn Harks and Tara Desousa, would loiter near her and her child, making sexist and inappropriate antagonizing comments.” The person who calls himself Madilyn but was named Matthew has been labelled a serial pedophile with an “all-encompassing preoccupation in sexually abusing young girls.”

Note well: the reason one of Canada’s most dangerous criminals, a man with violent pedophilic impulses and a history of profound mental disturbance, can get sent to a women’s prison is because our country is run by people like Trudeau, who believes gender ideology with every fibre of his being. 

Laboucan’s most recent attempt at parole – in June 2024– was denied, with the Parole Board of Canada stating that that the victim of Laboucan’s assault and the family “have suffered pain, anxiety and anguish and long-term emotional impacts resulting from your offending. Each time you come up for parole, they are haunted by your offending and the damage you inflicted on their defenceless son/grandson.” 

Of course, the government now expects you to believe that these crimes were committed by a woman – and the board did say that “escorted temporary absences” were “the next logical step in reintegration and gradual release,” despite the fact that he is “an undue risk to society.”

Laboucan’s Vancouver-based lawyer, Caroline North, declined to comment on the Federal Court application when asked by the Canadian Press. 

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Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National PostNational ReviewFirst Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton SpectatorReformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture WarSeeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of AbortionPatriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life MovementPrairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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