Top ICE Official Criticizes New York’s Sanctuary Status After Illegal Immigrant Attack on Police

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent monitors hundreds of illegal immigrants being processed upon entering the Jacob K. Javits Building in New York City, on June 6, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

New York City’s strict sanctuary status policies are partly to blame for U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) being unable to stop illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes from fleeing the state, a senior federal immigration official has claimed.

The remarks come after two NYPD officers were beaten by a group of individuals believed to be illegal immigrants outside a shelter near Times Square on Jan. 27.

Kenneth Genalo, the field office director at ICE’s New York office, made the comments during a press conference in Times Square on Feb. 5. He was joined by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), and a Democratic city councilman, Robert Holden of Queens.

During Monday’s press conference, Mr. Genalo and others urged Mayor Eric Adams to reverse the current sanctuary status policies to ensure the migrants involved in the attack can be easily deported.

The top-ranking federal immigration official told reporters that New York laws—including the city’s non-adherence to ICE detainer requests and the ban on city law enforcement cooperating with federal authorities when illegal immigrants are identified as suspects in violent crimes—are partly to blame for ICE officers being unable to stop the alleged attackers from fleeing the state.

“We are here, we want to assist, we want to help. The problem is, due to city policies and state law, the cooperation is no longer afforded between NYPD and ICE,” Mr. Genalo said.

“So, unfortunately, a lot of the way that we have to do our intelligence in ICE is the same way that you find out about cases, it’s through the media, so we’re no longer contacted, we’re no longer called and we have to check our databases but, obviously, there are hundreds of people a week that are being arrested throughout the city and if we can’t we can’t determine which are the most violent, we have to find out unfortunately through the media,” he said.

Police Attackers Arrested

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration signed Introductions 486-A and 487-A into law in 2014; drastically limiting New York City’s cooperation with federal immigration officials. In 2018, he issued citywide guidance and new NYPD protocols to codify the city’s policy of not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement activities.

“We used to have a unit that sat in Riker’s Island that worked hand-in-hand with NYPD. The prior administration at the time kicked the unit out of Riker’s Island; we no longer have a presence there,” Mr. Genalo continued.

“Basically, anyone that was foreign-born was vetted by my staff, the immigration officers, to determine whether or not they were amenable to removal proceedings. If they were, we took custody of them and we placed them in removal proceedings,” he said.

Now, with police officers not having to honor detainer requests, paired with other sanctuary state and city policies, ICE is forced to search for arrested illegal immigrants once they’re back in the community, and “have the upper hand,” Mr. Genalo said.

Police initially arrested five men in connection with the Jan. 27 incident, which left officers with minor injuries, including bruises and facial cuts.

Later, two more individuals were taken into custody but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office decided not to charge one of them.

Authorities arrested Yorman Reveron, 24, Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19, Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, 19, and Wilson Juarez, 21, and charged them with second-degree assault and second-degree obstructing governmental administration, CNN reported, citing a criminal complaint.

Jhoan Boada, 22, was arrested just days later and charged with the same two counts, while Yohenry Brito, 24, was also arrested days after the attack and arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault and one count of second-degree obstructing governmental administration, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

Police are continuing to search for multiple other suspects believed to have taken part in the attack; however, reports have since emerged that at least four of the individuals have allegedly fled to California after boarding a bus using fake names.

Video still shows a group of illegal immigrants attacking two New York police officers outside a shelter, on Jan. 27, 2024. New York Police Department

‘Ridiculous Policies Wreaking Havoc on City’

Elsewhere during Monday’s press conference, Rep. Malliotakis called on Mayor Adams and the city council to restore cooperation with ICE amid a rise in arrests among illegal immigrants accused of murders, stabbings, and robberies.

“We’re standing here today as a bipartisan group of elected officials to say thugs who pay the cartels thousands of dollars to be smuggled into our country and then proceed to commit crimes in our city should be arrested, detained, and deported immediately, and have any future immigration applications denied,” the lawmaker said.

Ms. Malliotakis said New York’s “ridiculous policies” are instead preventing that from happening, and illegal immigrants are instead “wreaking havoc on our city, being arrested and released, only to return to the comfort of their luxury hotel rooms at taxpayer expense.”

Meanwhile, councilman Bob Holden, stressed that as a Democrat, he does not agree with the sanctuary city policies, which he said do not “make any sense whatsoever.”

“When you have police officers attacked, you have citizens attacked regularly, do we need more criminals? We have to import them, then protect them? That’s ridiculous. It needs to stop,” Mr. Holden said.

However, Mayor Adams disputed those claims in a separate press conference on Monday where he touted declining crime figures. The Democrat also claimed it is only the city council that has the authority to change New York’s sanctuary city policies.

“My job, if someone breaks the law, is to make sure the New York City Police Department, our police department is carrying out their job,” Mr. Adams said. “I think that anyone that’s a repeated offender of a violent crime, a felony, should not remain on our streets. And if they are part of the migrant and asylum seekers, if they are found guilty, I think that the federal government should do their job of deporting that person,” the mayor stated.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.