Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem erupted at sanctuary city mayors Monday, giving a fiery eight-minute statement during a press conference in New York City where she announced a second illegal immigrant had been arrested in connection with the attempted robbery of a United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer.
Noem, border czar Tom Homan and other top officials with the Department of Homeland Security visited the CBP officer who was attacked while he was with a female companion at 11:50 p.m. Saturday by two men on a moped in Fort Washington Park in Manhattan in what appeared to be an attempted robbery. Noem called out Democratic Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, as well as the Democratic mayors of Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago during her opening remarks.
“There is absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City. He was arrested four different times in New York City and because of the mayor’s policies and sanctuary city policies, was released back to do harm to people and individuals living in this city,” Noem said. “Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today fighting for his life because of the policies of the mayor of this city and the city council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe. They refused to do so and now we have the situation on our hand where someone dedicated their lives to protecting the public is fighting for his own.”
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Video posted by DHS Sunday shows the exchange of gunfire, during which the off-duty agent was shot in the face, but returned fire, hitting one of the two assailants. New York Police Department radio traffic posted on X indicated the agent was shot in the mouth during the incident.
“I’m calling on every single mayor and sanctuary city and sanctuary governor to change their policies and to change their tactics right now,” Noem said. “Their job is to take an oath to protect the public, to protect families that are out there every day trying to provide for each other and to try to live the American dream and they want to do so safely in their own communities. How many more lives will it take? How many more people have to be hurt and victimized before we have public safety be a number one priority in some of our largest cities?”
“When I look at what Mayor Adams has done to New York City, it breaks my heart to see the families that have suffered because of his policies,” Noem continued. “We can look across this country at other mayors, we look at Mayor[Michelle] Wu in Boston and what happened under her watch. What has happened in L.A. with the riots and violence and protests that have gone on because of Mayor [Karen] Bass and what she has perpetuated, Mayor [Brandon] Johnson in Chicago and live in the poorest communities how they suffer every day with the violence in front of them just because these individuals are protecting criminals they’re protecting criminals who go out and murder, rape, rob, they perpetuate violence on our children. They traffic them and drugs and damage this country every single day under the protection of sanctuary city and governors.”
On July 7, Bass appeared on the scene of an ICE operation, demanding they cease their activities. Bass also issued an order reinforcing the city’s sanctuary policies days after filing a lawsuit to halt ICE raids.
Wu and Johnson refused to say if they would honor ICE detainers during a March House Oversight Committee hearing, prompting Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida to refer them to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.
Noem later identified the second suspect as Christhian Aybar-Berroa, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, in a Monday post on X.
Long a signature issue of Trump’s, illegal immigration became a prominent issue in the 2024 campaign after a series of crimes involving illegal immigrants. Authorities in Oklahoma arrested 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, for the August 2023 murder of 37-year-old Rachel Morin in Maryland on June 14, 2024.
Authorities in Houston arrested two men on June 20, 2024, and charged them with capital murder in the rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. In February 2024, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, was arrested by University of Georgia police and charged with murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.
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