WASHINGTON — President Trump is expected to tear into Gov. Kathy Hochul over New York’s “sanctuary” status when he rallies with GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman in Syracuse on Friday following a pair of violent incidents that have outraged both sides of the immigration debate.
Last week, two illegal immigrants with criminal rap sheets allegedly stabbed an off-duty New York Police Department detective in the Bronx after attempting to rob him.
The suspects, 25-year-old D’Angelo Caraballo and 24-year-old Sneider Mejia Bautista, both Dominican nationals, were nabbed early Wednesday after attempting to hide in a basement in Lynn, Mass.
Caraballo was previously thrown in the slammer for reckless driving, unlawful fleeing from an officer, criminal possession of a loaded firearm, and more.
Local cops released him after his December 2024 arrest.
Meanwhile, Bautista was arrested in October of last year for grand larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, stealing property, and other offenses before being set free after the NYPD opted against enforcing ICE’s detainer.
Then on Thursday afternoon, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old suspected migrant gang member, while a 5-year-old boy believed to be his son sat in the back of his SUV in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Belgal is suspected of links to the notorious Trinitarios gang and has “a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession.”
“This criminal illegal alien was arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023, but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk.”
In August, Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, imposing limits on certain types of statewide cooperation with ICE on civil immigration matters.
“New Yorkers are outraged tonight. Immigrant communities are terrified. And we are demanding answers,” she said in a statement following the the Belgal shooting.
“Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and DHS Secretary Mullin about the shooting in Marble Hill,” the governor added on X. “I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York. I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.”
Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger who is an underdog in most of the polls, vowed earlier this week to sign an executive order mandating local law enforcement cooperation with ICE if he gets elected Nov. 3.
“The insanity is over, we’re putting New Yorkers first,” the Nassau County executive said, adding that “one of the toughest days” of his tenure “was the day that I had to tell our police and our sheriffs that they could no longer cooperate with ICE because of Kathy Hochul.”
Syracuse and surrounding Onondaga County represent a Democratic-leaning island in bright-red central New York. In addition to Blakeman, Trump will hope Friday’s rally can provide a boost to Republican House candidate Kailee Buller, a former USDA official challenging first-term Democratic incumbent John Mannion.
Ahead of the rally, the Trump administration has highlighted the cases of several illegal immigrants who were nabbed in Syracuse for deranged crimes.
That list includes Hsa Mu Na, accused of sexual exploitation of a minor; Norberto Machado-Rodriguez, who faced accusations of sexual assault; Haikham Phimasone, accused of assult; and Said Ibrahim, accused of cruelty toward a child.
