NEW YORK—The acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday blamed New York City’s sanctuary policies for the death of an elderly woman from Queens. The woman, Maria Fuertes, was allegedly raped and murdered on Jan. 6 by Reeaz Khan, who was in the country illegally.
“I’m going to send my condolences to the family and friends of Maria Fuertes, a 92-year-old woman who was recently raped and murdered here in New York City by an illegal alien, that ICE could have arrested if not for the city’s policies,” ICE director Matthew Albence said.
According to ICE, they requested to detain Khan in November when he was arrested for allegedly stabbing his father. But Khan was released by state authorities.
New York City became a sanctuary city in November 2014 when the city council enacted Int 0486, which “significantly restricts” the Department of Corrections (DOC) from complying with immigration detainers issued by ICE.
When ICE suspects that an individual is subject to being removed from the country, they will issue a detainer with DOC.
In the sanctuary law, the DOC would only honor the detainer if the individual was convicted of a “violent or serious” crime within the last five years, he or she was listed as a terrorist or ICE had a federal judicial warrant.
But ICE director Albence says that there is no way for them to get a judicial warrant.
“To be perfectly clear, not only do we not need one, we can’t even get one,” he said. “There is no federal judge, state judge, local judge, magistrate anywhere in this country that has a lawful authority to issue a judicial warrant for a civil immigration violation. It’s just not doable.
“The system set up by Congress gives that authority solely to supervisory immigration officers, and that is the framework under which we operate.”
In December 2016, New York City Council adopted a resolution that would keep New York a sanctuary city and continue to limit the city’s cooperation with ICE agents.
The resolution was made to prevent immigration enforcement that would “needlessly tear families apart and undermine confidence in law enforcement agencies.”
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told CBS that he believes people have the right to a trial. If an illegal immigrant is convicted of a heinous crime, then that person will be handed over to ICE, he said.
And yet, Albence says that handing them over only after they’ve been conviction is not effective.
“NYPD said that, ‘well if this guy gets convicted we’ll give him to ICE afterwards,’” he said. “What the hell good is that? The crime’s already been committed. The victim’s dead. Too little, too late New York.”
After Fuertes’s murder, Albence urges that the city cooperate with ICE.
“But maybe, just maybe this tragedy will be enough to get them to start rethinking how they do business and come and work with us,” he said.
Furthermore, the vice president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association Vincent Vallelong told NTD that the policy does not help illegal immigrants that are otherwise law-abiding.
“It doesn’t serve even the immigrants that are here illegally, that aren’t committing crimes that aren’t on the radar,” he said. “We put this individual back into the community to hurt them.”
Last April, the New York state court system set rules preventing ICE agents from making arrests inside court buildings without a federal judicial warrant, but ICE has done so regardless.
“They can make a policy but that doesn’t supersede our policy—federal law,” said ICE enforcement and removal officer Thomas Decker.
Last year, ICE issued more than 7,500 requests to detain illegal immigrants charged with crimes but New York City has only complied with 10 of them.
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