The White House on Saturday slammed New York City for being a sanctuary city for immigrants and for creating conditions that have led to violent crimes and other chaos.
“Radical Democrat politicians must stop releasing criminal illegal aliens from jails into our communities,” fumed White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis.
“These reckless policies have consequences and far too often they are the death of innocent Americans. Extreme Democrats must stop putting criminal illegal aliens above American citizens.”
The Trump administration is vigorously defending the actions of ICE agents who shot criminal migrant Oscar Belgal, 28, in the Bronx Thursday — arguing that situations like his could have been avoided had NYPD handed over suspects to immigration authorities before releasing them.
The Dominican migrant had a lengthy criminal record yet stayed on the streets under New York’s bail and sanctuary policies, according to sources and court records.
Belgal is believed to have entered the US illegally around 2022. A year later, he robbed someone at gunpoint in Fordham Heights, and he was convicted in 2025. Within months, he was allegedly caught selling drugs, and sources say he is tied to a violent street gang.
Belgal’s case is not the only one the administration is pointing to. Several high-profile cases involving suspects previously arrested and released by the NYPD have become central to its argument.
D’Angelo Caraballo and Sneider Mejia Bautista, the illegal aliens accused in the stabbing of off-duty NYPD Det. Jose Mercedes last week, had been previously arrested on separate charges and released. Authorities say they pulled up to Mercedes on an e-bike, then tried to snatch his gold chain. When he fought back, he was stabbed seven times.
Cristian Aybar-Berroa, 22, and Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, the suspects who shot an off duty Customs and Border Protection agent during a July moped robbery in Fort Washington Park in Manhattan, had been arrested by the NYPD and released.
Aybar-Berroa, who entered the country illegally in 2022 during a crush of migration under the Biden administration, was cuffed eight times by the NYPD after a federal immigration judge ordered he be deported in 2023 — getting released each time.
As The Post previously reported, Mora Nunez had multiple arrests in New York, including a pair in August 2024 after allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman. He was also wanted on weapons and kidnapping charges in Massachusetts.
Richard Williams, an 83-year-old Air Force veteran, died from a brain bleed after being shoved onto the F/Q subway tracks in Manhattan in March by a Honduran illegal who had been deported four times.
Police called that suspect, Bairon Posada-Hernandez, a “serial criminal” with at least 15 charges on his rap sheet. Charges included simple assault, domestic violence, and obstruction of justice.
And the year before murdering nursing student Laken Riley while the 22-year-old was out jogging at the University of Georgia in 2024, Tren de Aragua member José Antonio Ibarra had been arrested and released by the NYPD for driving a scooter with his 2-year old, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, on the back. He was also wanted on an arrest warrant in Georgia.
The cases have become ammunition in the wider fight over sanctuary-city policies, with federal officials arguing that local authorities’ refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement can leave dangerous suspects at large.
White House border czar Tom Homan blasted so-called sanctuary-city policies during an appearance on Fox News Saturday, while defending the ICE agents who fired on Belgal’s vehicle as his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat.
“They performed exactly as they were trained. This man tried to run an officer over. He feared for his life, so he took action,” Homan told the network.
“Many of these instances could be avoided if they’d simply give us access to the bad guy in the safety and security of the jail rather than release him into the community.”
Law enforcement experts say the policies carry risks beyond the courtroom.
“Several states have challenged federal immigration enforcement in ways that, in my view, create unnecessary risks for civilians,” said Michael Alcazar, retired NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“By prohibing local police from assisting ICE during operations, they limit the ability to maintain a safe and controlled environment.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
