A suspect in a police shooting who claimed Venezuelan gangs were smuggling guns into migrant facilities was staying in a shelter equipped with X-ray and magnetic detectors to check for weapons, authorities said.
City officials told The Post that security guards at the East Elmhurst shelter have been “retrained” on the proper use of hand-held test wands and searching possessions since a former resident, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, allegedly shot and killed two NYPD officers.
But Mata’s startling, yet unconfirmed, allegations that the bloodthirsty Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang is using food delivery bags to smuggle guns to its members have prompted lawmakers from all parties to call for increased security at city-run migrant shelters.
“Those in power are being deceived by the honor system,” said City Councilwoman Joan Arriola (R-Queens).
“Violent criminals are taking advantage of an overly lenient system and have zero respect for the police, let alone the civil guards hired to monitor the facilities,” she told the Post.
The city’s migrant shelters have been plagued by safety issues, including violent stabbings, fights, attacks on police officers and guards who make up to $117 an hour.
Many local residents and politicians say the evacuation centers are spreading lawlessness into nearby areas. – This assertion is supported by the NYPD’s crackdown on a rise in two-pedal robberies committed by immigrant moped gangs.
“Only people who live in an alternate world wouldn’t see the correlation between mass immigrant tent cities and shelters and increased crime in neighborhoods,” said Assembly Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-Staten Island).
City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said Mata, who described himself as a member of Tren de Aragua and told police the gang frequently shoots at officers in Venezuela, is a “poster boy” for opponents of open borders and sanctuary city status.
“That’s why everyone coming into our country should be heavily screened and not put into a shelter system that will likely have to start using metal detectors going forward,” he said.
City Councilwoman Vicki Paladino (R-Queens) said increased security at shelters was a good idea, but that more powers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were also needed, a proposal Mayor Eric Adams also supported earlier this year.
“You have people on City Council who scream about crime, but when you try to give more powers to the police, they start screaming the other way,” Paladino said.
But other, more progressive city council members argued the issue is not far from New York.
Rep. Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/Bronx) told The Washington Post that the problem isn’t border policy, but the “low security” of migrant shelters.
“In a city-run shelter, something like this could easily happen, with New York City residents smuggling drugs or guns into the shelter, and that’s why we have specific policies in place within the shelter structure to prevent this from happening,” she said.
“The problem with migrant facilities is that they don’t exist.”
She noted that lawmakers have previously called for metal detectors to be installed in these facilities but to no avail, leading to some people “climbing” into these shelters.
“Some migrants jump the fence and come in through the back door,” she claimed.
Rep. Chris Banks (D-Brooklyn) said focusing our attention on border policy and sanctuary status distracts us from the real issues.
“There seems to be a lot of concern about this happening and my question is what steps the city is taking to address this,” Banks said.
City officials said Mata’s claims that guns were being smuggled into migrant shelters had not been verified.
Authorities said he was being chased out of the former Marriott Courtyard on Ditmars Boulevard near LaGuardia Airport for a domestic incident, not a weapons violation.
Officials said security guards at migrant shelters across the city were continuing to receive additional training.
“All of our shelters have 24-hour security and we make it clear that anyone who breaches our code of conduct or poses a risk to the safety of other shelter residents or staff will be removed immediately,” a city hall spokesman said.
