At least four of the undocumented immigrants who swarmed and assaulted two NYPD officers in a shocking attack in Times Square in January had been arrested by federal law enforcement as recently as July 2022 but were released without being deported, according to a preliminary congressional report on the incident.
The report also harshly criticizes the Biden-Harris administration's record on immigration policy.
One of the migrants, a suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang, had already received a deportation order before the brutal attack and had since left the country and returned.
Another immigrant was arrested after fleeing U.S. authorities and attempting to illegally cross the southern border into Canada but was released. A third suspected immigrant was also arrested for shoplifting and assaulting two store clerks at two separate stores several months before the Times Square attack but was not ordered deported.
NYPD agrees to plea deal for immigrants involved in Times Square attack, including one re-arrested on theft charges
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is investigating allegations that former President Donald Trump paid hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photo via Getty Images/Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The shocking revelations are detailed in a report released Wednesday by the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, which is investigating the attack on a police lieutenant and officer that was caught on camera on Jan. 27. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and subcommittee chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) subpoenaed the Homeland immigration files as part of the report.
The attack drew widespread condemnation — one of the suspects flipped off reporters' cameras after being released from police custody — and drew sharp attention to a rise in immigration crime, particularly in New York City, which has housed tens of thousands of migrants at taxpayer expense. The attack took place in a busy tourist area near a migrant shelter.
Darwin Gomez-Isquiel, 19, in Manhattan Criminal Court. Gomez-Isquiel accepted a plea deal for his role in the attack on two NYPD officers in Times Square. (Fox News)
The report also found that the immigration vetting process was clearly inadequate, leaving an estimated 617,000 criminal immigrants roaming the streets of the United States, and criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for agreeing a plea deal with the Times Square attacker while simultaneously prosecuting former President Donald Trump for paying hush money.
Citing data from multiple agencies, the committee said more than 5.6 million illegal immigrants entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, and an additional 1.9 million illegal immigrant “fugitives” fled to the U.S. during the same period.
“The results are predictable: cities in disarray, public services collapsing, and communities broken by the criminal activity of a small minority of illegal immigrants,” the report said.
According to reports, the four men – Wilson Juarez Aguilarte, Kelvin Servita Arocha, Darwin Gomez Izquier and Yeoman Yoel Riveron Rivero – all entered the country illegally during the Biden-Harris administration and have been charged with assaulting a police officer and obstructing a government investigation.
Since then, the pair have agreed to generous plea deals with Bragg's office and no one has been deported, he said. New York Post.
New York's 'catch and release' policy fails to hold criminals accountable: police officials
Wilson Juarez Aguilarte appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Friday, February 16, 2024. He was charged with his alleged role in the assault of two NYPD officers. (Matthew McDermott, Fox News Digital)
Juarez Aguilarte, a Venezuelan national and suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang, was ordered deported from the U.S. in February 2023, nearly a year before the Times Square attack. According to the report, the suspect crossed the southern border into Brownsville, Texas, in July 2022 and did not tell Border Patrol why he left Venezuela, telling them he was heading to Houston.
At one point he left the U.S., then re-entered the country in June 2023 with a group of 14 other migrants near Champlain, New York, but the Border Patrol released him again.
A Manhattan judge set bail at $1 after the Times Square incident because the defendants were charged with tampering with evidence and not participating in the attack.
Servita Arocha, a Venezuelan native and alleged member of the Tren de Aragua gang who has tattoos “significantly associated” with the gang, was arrested in upstate New York in January 2023 while walking with eight other Venezuelan migrants about 10 miles from the northern border. The group told Border Patrol agents they “wanted to get to Canada” and that they “illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico through Texas” a week earlier.
The Border Patrol released him and gave him a list of free legal service providers.
A year later, he was one of four suspects arrested in the attack and released without bail after Bragg offered him a plea deal to plead guilty to obstructing government administration and serve six months in prison.
According to reports, Gomez Izquier, also a Venezuelan national, crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico on a raft in August 2023 and entered the U.S. illegally near Brownsville, Texas. After being taken into custody by the Border Patrol, he claimed he had entered the U.S. seeking asylum to find work and pursue an education to help his family financially. He was released after a National Crime Information Center referral found he had no criminal history.
A few days later, without being detained by ICE, he was said to have been part of a group that robbed a Macy's store in the Queens Center Mall and assaulted an employee. Gómez-Isquiel was accused of acting as a lookout for three other men who stole merchandise from the store. In late July 2024, Gómez-Isquiel accepted a plea deal in the Times Square attack.
Meanwhile, the report also details how Riveron Rivero illegally entered the U.S. in Brownsville, Texas in May 2023 and was arrested by Border Patrol, but was released with instructions to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days, which he did in September 2023 in New York City.
Officers quickly issued a warrant for his arrest but again released him on bail, on the condition that he “not violate any local, state or federal laws or ordinances” or associate with known gang members or engage in any such activity.
It's unclear why ICE officials issued the arrest warrant.
Suspects (left to right) Yo-Henry Brito, Yo-Man Rebellon and Kelvin Servita Arocha appear in Manhattan Supreme Court on April 2, 2024. Immigrants attacked NYPD officers in Times Square in February. (Stephen Hirsch)
Two months later, Riveron Rivero was accused of stealing pants from a Nordstrom store in New York City and punching and biting a store clerk in the face. He then tried to steal a coat from Macy's and punched a store clerk. He was reportedly released without bail after his second arrest.
Riveron Rivero, accused of grabbing two police officers, pulling them and wrestling them to the ground during the Times Square attack, was offered a two-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree assault.
“New York City police officers were attacked because the Biden-Harris administration allowed these illegal immigrants into the country,” the report said.
“The Biden-Harris Administration's disastrous immigration policies have had real-world consequences for the American people. The impacts of these policies will be felt for years to come, allowing criminal aliens to live in America's neighborhoods, harming families and threatening public safety across the country.”
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The report found that the vetting process for immigrants is almost non-existent because the Department of Homeland Security has no way of determining whether a foreign national has a criminal record in their home country unless that country reports the information to the U.S. government or the immigrant reports it themselves.
The interim report also criticized Bragg for accepting the plea deal with Gómez Izquier while simultaneously engaging in a “legal battle against President Donald J. Trump, the primary political opponent of the Biden-Harris Administration,” referencing the hush-money case he was prosecuting against Trump.
“As the Committee found, Bragg abused his power to subject President Trump to political prosecution and used novel and complex legal theories to turn what were essentially misdemeanor record-keeping violations into dozens of felonies.”
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