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| - Bondi's memorandum ordered prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in cases involving "the murder of a law-enforcement officer, or a capital crime by an alien illegally present in the United States."
However, immigrants residing illegally in the U.S. can't be given the death penalty simply for being here. They must have committed a crime in one of the two above-mentioned categories to be subject to the death penalty under Bondi's policy.
In early February 2025, claims (archived) circulated online that a memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called for the death penalty for immigrants residing in the country illegally. The claim circulated on (archived) Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived from Facebook post), as well as X (archived). Snopes readers also searched our site and asked in our inbox about the claim.
One X post stated the claim as follows: "ICYMI: DOJ is going to impose the death penalty on 'illegal' immigrants for the crime of living in this country. I am DISGUSTED!"
(@mudpuppy_16 / X)
However, these claims were only partly true. Bondi's memo did call for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for immigrants residing illegally in the U.S. for capital crimes or the murder of a law enforcement officer. It did not, however, ask prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in all cases involving immigrants without legal status.
The claim originated from a memorandum signed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi titled: "Reviving the federal death penalty and lifting the moratorium on federal executions." The memorandum implements changes at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in line with President Donald Trump's "Restoring the death penalty and protecting public safety" executive order.
The DOJ memo laid out two types of cases where the attorney general and federal prosecutors must pursue the death penalty: the murder of a law enforcement officer or a capital crime committed by an immigrant illegally present in the U.S. To be clear, however, immigrants residing illegally in the U.S. must be found guilty of one of the two named types of crimes for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty — simply residing illegally in the U.S. is a charge adjudicated in civil courts, not criminal courts, and cannot be punished by the death penalty, nor did the memo suggest this. Therefore, we give this claim a mixture rating.
Claims online specifically highlighted a section of the memorandum titled "Seeking the Death Penalty." This section laid out new guidelines for federal prosecutors, stating that they must seek the death penalty for defendants in certain cases. The memo, which used the term "aliens" for noncitizen immigrants, mentioned this group three times. First, it said:
Absent significant mitigating circumstances, federal prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer and capital crimes committed by aliens who are illegally present in the United States.
A capital crime or offense is a crime for which federal prosecutors may seek the death penalty. These crimes include murder, treason, genocide or the killing or kidnapping of a congressman, the president or a Supreme Court justice, according to the DOJ. A death penalty verdict is always decided by a jury.
Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, whose work includes fighting death row cases in the U.S., explained that:
The memorandum essentially says that any capital offence that is committed by an illegal alien - which is anyone not legally in the country, so can be someone who overstayed on a visa not just someone who came in illegally - shall be pursued for the death penalty. Since any murder with an 'aggravating circumstance' is capital, this means that if you go along on what is essentially a common armed robbery and someone else kills a person, you are likely to face execution, which would never have happened when prosecutors were given discretion.
"Discretion" in Smith's quote above refers to prosecutorial discretion, a term referring to the measure of freedom within charging guidelines that prosecutors are often given. A memo like Bondi's restricts this freedom in certain cases and asks prosecutors to always charge in a particular way. An aggravating circumstance is a factor that makes a crime capital and allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.
Secondly, the February 2025 memo reinstated a policy from a March 2018 memo that instructed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in certain drug-related prosecutions. The 2018 memo was issued by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general nominated by Trump at the start of his first term. Bondi's memo asked that prosecutors apply the 2018 policy to non-drug capital crimes involving groups including immigrants residing illegally in the U.S.:
In addition to drug-related prosecutions, the policy shall also be applied to cases involving non-drug capital crimes by cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and aliens who traverse our borders and remain in the United States without legal status.
The final mention of immigrants residing illegally in the U.S. in the memo summarized the first mention. Bondi wrote:
The murder of a law-enforcement officer, or a capital crime by an alien illegally present in the United States, are the types of aggravating circumstances that, absent significant mitigating circumstances, will warrant the Department seeking the death penalty.
Whether Bondi can enforce the policy stated in the memo remains to be seen. Federal Public Defender Geremy Kamens told legal news-focused outlet The Appeal on Feb. 7 that Bondi's policy could be unconstitutional because it targets specific groups, including immigrants residing illegally in the U.S., with the death penalty.
Further, Smith noted that death penalty cases take a long time to move through the justice system, estimating that it was unlikely new cases would pass through the system of trial and appeal before the end of Trump's current term.
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