One of the illegal immigrants, a suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang, was already subject to a deportation order before he was arrested trying to cross the northern border again after being caught on brutal video tape in January assaulting two NYPD officers, according to documents obtained by a congressional committee.
Another immigrant linked to the brawl – also suspected to be a member of the TdA – fled from U.S. authorities after crossing the southern border and was arrested while attempting to smuggle himself into Canada, but was later released.
Four Venezuelan immigrants charged in connection with a January brawl with NYPD officers in Times Square were arrested by federal law enforcement last year but released without being deported, according to documents obtained by a congressional committee.
Immigrant alien files obtained by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration Security, Security, and Enforcement revealed flaws in the vetting process at the U.S. border that allowed hundreds of thousands of people known to have committed crimes in their home countries to move freely through the country.
According to the House subcommittee's interim report, the four — Wilson Juarez Aguilarte, Kelvin Servita Arocha, Yeoman Yoel Riveron Rivero and Darwin Gomez Izquier — entered the U.S. between July 2022 and May 2023, evading several contacts before the Times Square assault.
Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sent a subpoena to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on July 31, demanding records after receiving repeated requests for information about immigration since February.
The three were charged with assaulting a police officer and obstructing a government investigation following a January 27 brawl in which they were caught on camera punching and kicking an NYPD officer and a lieutenant.
Two later agreed to lenient plea deals with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, according to the police union. Some had previously been charged with robbery and other offenses but have not yet been deported.
Juarez Aguilarte, a suspected member of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, crossed the southern border into Brownsville, Texas, on July 31, 2022, and told Border Patrol agents he was headed to Houston.
During questioning by Border Patrol agents, Juarez Aguilarte refused to reveal why he fled Venezuela, but he was nevertheless released into the United States in August 2022.
An immigration judge ultimately ordered him removed from the U.S. in February 2023. But a Department of Homeland Security source said he will likely remain in the U.S. because his native Venezuela has refused to allow him to be deported from the country.
It is unclear when Juarez Aguilarte left the country, but on June 2, 2023, he was arrested again, this time at the northern border in Champlain, New York, attempting to illegally enter the United States along with 14 other migrants. Border Patrol again released him.
Servita Arocha, a suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang, was also arrested at the northern border in January 2023 while walking with eight other Venezuelan migrants along a road just 10 miles from Canada in Chazy, New York.
The group had already illegally entered Texas a week earlier, but told Border Patrol agents they wanted to go to Canada. Servita Arocha was released into the US shortly thereafter.
Riveron Rivero illegally entered the U.S. in May 2023 in Brownsville, Texas, and was arrested by the Border Patrol, but was released with instructions to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days.
When Riveron-Rivero showed up at an ICE office in New York City in September 2023, officers quickly issued a warrant for his arrest, then later released him on bail again on the condition that he “will not violate any local, state, or federal law or ordinance” or “associate with or engage in any known gang members or criminal associates activity.” It is not clear why ICE officials issued the warrant.
Gomez Izquier was arrested by Border Patrol agents after illegally crossing the southern border near Brownsville, Texas, on Aug. 21, 2023. While in federal custody, Gomez Izquier said he came to the United States.[t]o Seeking asylum to get employment for support [his] To be able to financially support my family and get an education.”
He was going to live with his uncle in Mississippi.
But Gomez Izquier said: “I was offered the withdrawal and I accepted it. [his] He had the right to “file an application for admission to the United States and return to Mexico in lieu of entering deportation proceedings,” but somehow he was released into the United States or sneaked back across the border.
Servita Arocha was offered and accepted a nearly six-month prison sentence in June in exchange for pleading guilty to all charges, while Juarez Aguilarte was offered the same terms a month earlier, but his case remains pending.
Prosecutors offered Riveron Rivero a two-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty, but his case is also still pending.
Earlier this month, Gomez Izquier, 19, grinned in a Manhattan courtroom after pleading guilty to second-degree assault in a scuffle with an NYPD officer.
He was sentenced to 364 days in prison, which the Police Benevolent Association condemned as “inadequate”.
In its report, the Judiciary Committee said that while the case was ongoing, Bragg “abused his power” in trying to criminally prosecute former President Donald Trump for business fraud.
Committee staff point to a decline in deportations of immigrants charged with crimes since President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office and argue that this has come at a cost.
“For example, in fiscal year 2023, ICE deported 41% fewer aliens with criminal histories or criminal charges than in fiscal year 2020 and nearly 60% fewer than in fiscal year 2019,” the report said, citing data previously disclosed by the House Judiciary Committee.
“As a result, the number of aliens with criminal records released into the United States is likely to exceed 617,000 by December 2023, and is growing every day due to the border crisis,” the report said.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
