An illegal immigrant from Venezuela with suspected gang ties who allegedly committed 22 crimes in New York City over a six-month period has yet to be deported, according to local reports and the House Judiciary Committee.
“The problem in New York is that we have sanctuary states and sanctuary cities, and they’ve put politics above public safety,” said Tom Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Trump. “Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.”
Daniel Hernandez Martinez, 30, a reputed member of the ultra-violent Tren de Aragua gang, was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in January 2023 in Texas, according to a report released Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee.
Investigators cited his suspected gang ties and granted him expedited deportation under the auspices of a Trump-era Title 42 order, sending him back to Mexico. The New York Post reported..
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Daniel Hernandez Martinez, 30, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of committing 22 crimes over a six-month period in New York City. (Getty | NY Post)
But the government report said Martinez crossed the border again and traveled to New York City, where he began a six-month crime spree that “terrorized” helpless residents.
Before he was taken into ICE custody, he had been arrested and released eight times on charges including assaulting two police officers and three strangers.
Martinez was allegedly trying to steal a bag of potato chips and toothpaste when he was stopped by undercover police officers in July 2023. He was arrested after brandishing a knife and threatening officers, but was released without bail and the charges were later dropped, The Washington Post reported.
House Judiciary Committee Report on the Biden-Harris Open Borders Policy:
Martinez was arrested three times the following month on suspicion of assaulting two police officers and a woman, as well as theft.
ICE sought custody of Martinez after his seventh arrest in New York City in September. Martinez is being held at Rikers Island prison, which does not cooperate with ICE, and is scheduled for release in November 2023, according to The Washington Post.
Maltonez continued his reign of terror, allegedly being arrested two more times in New York before being taken into ICE custody.
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President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truman Balcony at the White House on July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
He was scheduled to be deported in June, but The Washington Post reported that his native Venezuela is not accepting flights and Martinez will likely remain in the US indefinitely.
“It’s going to get even worse under a Kamala Walz administration,” said Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council. “They’ve already made the decision to prioritize their base over the safety and security of the American people, and that’s why we’re seeing this crisis. Every Border Patrol agent is outraged.”
A House Judiciary Committee report criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for downplaying the threat of illegal immigration.
“In 2017, then-Senator Kamala Harris mocked plans to remove illegal immigrants from the United States, claiming that ‘illegal immigrants are not criminals,'” the report states. “Contrary to the claims of border officials, many of the illegal immigrants allowed into the United States under Vice President Harris’ watch are criminals who victimize Americans and terrorize American communities.”
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Judd echoed that sentiment, arguing that solutions to the border crisis are being ignored at the federal level. He said the only viable approach was to quickly adjudicate cases and deport illegal immigrants.
“We’re going to start by housing single adults and trying their cases immediately,” he said. “If we start deporting people, they’re going to stop coming. Once that demographic stops coming, we can deal with families. Once we can deal with families, we can deal with children.”
The committee highlighted that more than seven million illegal immigrants have entered the United States over the past four years and claimed that President Biden and Ms Harris are responsible for destabilizing the country.
“The chaos on the southwest border, created and fueled by the radical policies of President Joe Biden and his ‘border agent’ Vice President Kamala Harris, is destabilizing security in the country,” the report said.
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Mayor Eric Adams and migrants at a camp in New York City. (Getty Images)
Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales described Martinez’s gang as “MS-13 on steroids.”
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“They’re extremely aggressive,” he previously told Fox News Digital. “They’re not a passive group, and they’re not looking to go quietly. They come from Venezuela, one of the most war-torn countries in the last decade, so they’re used to fighting in many ways. And they’ve come from there to here. But they’re also … more organized, more emboldened.”
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
