NYC overrules own sanctuary policy, hands migrant teen convicted in attack on cops to ICE
One of several Venezuelan migrants accused of participating in a street brawl with two New York City police officers earlier this year has been arrested by immigration authorities after the city honored a detainer request, a move contrary to New York's sanctuary city policies.
Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, 19, was arrested upon being released from local custody. The arrest was made after the New York City Department of Corrections honored a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request despite New York's sanctuary city status.
He remains in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings, the agency said.
"Gomez-Izquiel is a criminal and threat to the public servants, residents and businesses of New York City," said ICE New York City Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo. "We will not allow our communities to become safe havens for noncitizens who refuse to abide by our laws. ICE New York City will continue to work with unending determination to apprehend and remove these violent criminal offenders."
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, the NYC Department of Corrections said it "processes ICE detainers pursuant to local law, which defines the extent of our cooperation with federal immigration authorities."
Gomez-Izquiel was initially arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents in August 2023 but voluntarily returned to Mexico, ICE said. On Oct. 3, 2023, he was arrested again in Texas after illegally crossing the southern border, authorities said.
He allegedly failed to appear before an immigration judge after being released.
On Jan. 27, Gomez-Izquiel was part of a group of migrants that attacked two NYPD officers outside a migrant shelter in Times Square. He allegedly grabbed one officer and kicked another.
Gomez-Izquiel was convicted of assault and sentenced in July to 364 days in jail.
After the cop assault, he was initially released without bail but was arrested weeks later for his alleged role in a violent robbery at a Macy's department store in Queens in which a security guard sustained minor injuries.
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"One of the migrants who assaulted our officers last week in Times Square is back at it again," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X at the time. "This time he was part of a group that robbed a department store in Queens. They also assaulted an employee. Different borough, different crime — same disregard for the law. This is the last thing NYers need."
Juvenile illegal immigrants in Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, have committed a series of crimes in New York but have remained free because of the state's lenient laws, NYPD Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino.
"It's shocking to say the least, and we've seen a progression with this group," Savino told "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning.
Twenty members of a subset of the gang calling itself "Los Diablos de la 42" in reference to New York's 42nd Street have been arrested in 50 separate crimes, according to Savino.
"When they first came, they were actually encouraged not to commit crimes, so they stuck to pickpockets, then they graduated to snatches, soon after scooter crime," Savino told Fox News. "Why? Because their original criminality did not have consequences."
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.