New York Refuses ICE Detainer for Illegal Alien Accused of Killing 4 in Arson |
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New York Refuses ICE Detainer for Illegal Alien Accused of Killing 4 in Arson
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman
Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past." Send an email to Jarrett
New York is so committed to nullifying immigration law that it refuses to relinquish an alleged arsonist accused of killing four people in New York City.
That was reported by the New York Post and Fox News on Thursday. According to those reports, Roman Ceron Amatitla—who is a Mexican national illegally living in the U.S.—is accused of a heinous crime but could end up being released.
The accusations against Amatitla are enraging.
According to the New York Post, he’s been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder and first-degree arson in connection to a fire at a building in Flushing on March 16.
Just before starting the fire, Amatitla allegedly “entered and exited the Avery Avenue building multiple times, urinated in front of the apartments, and then went to a nearby gas station—where he bought a beer, stole a second one, and took a pack of matches after refusing to pay for a lighter.”
Then, according to authorities, he went into the building a final time, lit a piece of paper on fire, and threw it into a stairwell.
After that, the New York Post reported, he “stayed in the immediate area to watch people burn and jump from the windows.”
One of the victims was 3 years old.
Amatitla should have never been here, but now that he allegedly killed four Americans and hurt seven others you would think that New York, despite its status as a sanctuary state, would quietly relinquish him to federal authorities.
The Department of Homeland Security put out a statement about the situation, saying that on April 14, DHS requested that the New York City Department of Corrections not release Amatitla. But NYCDOC refused to cooperate in any way with federal authorities.
This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death.New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are committing to RELEASING this MURDERER onto New York streets.New York’s sanctuary… https://t.co/3jQwPSn9Qu— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 17, 2026
This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death.New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are committing to RELEASING this MURDERER onto New York streets.New York’s sanctuary… https://t.co/3jQwPSn9Qu
“This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death. New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and are committing to RELEASING this MURDERER onto New York streets,” DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis wrote. “New York’s sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety. We are calling on Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani to commit to honoring this detainer and turning him over.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order preventing local authorities from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has also decided to further hamstring local police departments from cooperating with ICE. So much for her being a “moderate.”
Even for New York, the refusal to work with ICE in this case is remarkable.
Think about it for a moment.
If you are a Democrat and your goal is to convince the American people that you’ve moderated on your extremely unpopular immigration ideas, an easy step to take would be to let ICE at the very least have the accused mass murderers.
But as we’ve seen with the “Maryland Dad” situation, Democrats are willing to go to bat for even domestic abusers, human traffickers, and all kinds of other violent criminals to maintain their open borders position.
In a way, it makes sense.
If they were to give these folks over to ICE it would mean they’d have to acknowledge that ICE agents aren’t the Gestapo and may actually be keeping Americans safe.
That goes against virtually all their messaging since President Donald Trump’s election. So, you get situations like this where even the most seemingly evil, bloodthirsty criminal is protected from deportation.
In this case, I’d seriously doubt Amatitla would escape jail time, even in New York. But this case highlights how sanctuary cities and states struggle to deal with even the worst of the worst.
New York is shielding thousands of violent criminals in their fanatical devotion to thwarting U.S. immigration law. Not only do these violent criminals escape deportation, but it seems in many cases they escape any kind of justice.
DHS stated that that New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers has led to the “release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January 20. The crimes of these aliens include 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous drugs offenses, 300 weapons offenses, and 207 sexual predatory offenses.”
How many of these people go on to commit other crimes? Given the record of repeat offenders, likely quite a few.
That’s what the nation has to endure to appease the Left’s open borders madness.
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