The New York City Department of Corrections and the New York Police Department refused to detain a Venezuelan national despite his alleged five-month crime spree after entering the country illegally, including allegedly assaulting an NYPD officer, federal immigration officials said.
On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officers with a special fugitive operation team arrested 21-year-old Brayan Freites-Macias at his residence in New York City.
He is among five individuals identified as “unlawfully present noncitizens” by ICE and accused in the robbery of a Target store in the affluent Upper East Side of Manhattan on April 2. One of four police officers who attempted to stop the gang was reportedly injured when they assaulted him.
In an April 25 post on X, ICE’s New York City Enforcement and Removal Office (ERO) wrote that its agents arrested Mr. Freites-Macias “after local authorities refused to honor the detainer due to sanctuary policies.”
ICE officials in several states have indicated in documents that detainer requests submitted by ERO agents for noncitizens arrested on criminal charges are often rejected or ignored by either the immigration courts or other agencies.
ICE Detainers Ignored
Earlier this month, an ICE official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Epoch Times that ICE detainer requests are frequently ignored by immigration judges and other agencies, especially in cities such as Washington and New York. The official said the ICE detainer requests are not honored even when the noncitizen has had a conviction on rape and murder.
In Mr. Freites-Macias’ case, he was released several times after either being charged or convicted of crimes.
His first arrest was on Dec. 4, 2023, when Border Patrol agents caught him crossing the border illegally near El Paso, Texas. He was issued a notice to appear before a federal immigration judge and released on his own recognizance.
Less than three weeks later on Dec. 21, the NYPD arrested him. The first round of charges he racked up included petit larceny and disorderly conduct.
He was arrested again in New York City on Jan. 18 on criminal trespassing charges and again released on personal recognizance.
While awaiting trial on previous charges, he allegedly robbed the Manhattan Target with four other illegal immigrants on April 2.
He was arrested on April 3 on charges of third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury.
ICE said that on April 9, when it submitted an immigration detainer with the New York City Department of Corrections, the department refused to honor the request and instead released Mr. Freites-Macias into the general public on April 22.
On the day of his release, NYPD officers arrested him again on the charge of grand larceny in the third degree, which is applied when the value of the stolen property exceeds $3,000. ICE said it submitted another detainer request to the NYPD at Manhattan Central Booking, but the agency disregarded the request and released him, citing the city’s sanctuary policies.
The NYPD responded to inquiries from The Epoch Times about its refusal to honor ICE’s detainer request for Mr. Freites-Macias by sending a link to its yearly database of civil immigration detainers.
It shows that beginning in 2017, the department stopped honoring any immigration detainer requests. The last time the department honored an ICE detainer request was in 2016, when it received 80 detainer requests and honored only two of them.
Recent Illegal Immigrant Crime
The Target robbery allegedly carried about by Mr. Freites-Macias and other illegal immigrants came three months after the highly publicized assault of two NYPD officers by a group of illegal immigrants in Times Square in January.The attacks outraged both Republicans and Democrats. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s sanctuary policy should not apply to illegal immigrants accused of committing crimes, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the migrants who carried out the attacks should be deported.
In addition to the arrest of Mr. Freites-Macias, ICE agents have arrested several migrants deemed to be “living unlawfully in the U.S.” who have violent criminal histories, including charges of sexual assault.
On Thursday, Boston-based ICE agents arrested and charged a 53-year-old Guatemalan national with first-degree sexual assault stemming from an attack in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 18. He already has several previous convictions for violent crimes, including a 2013 conviction of strangulation in the second degree.
Agents also recently arrested a 27-year-old Ecuadoran national for indecent assault of a child in Connecticut. On April 15, ICE agents arrested a Honduran national in Maryland on various alleged sex crimes against a 13-year-old in Virginia.
