ICE to 'flood' New York with agents after border officer shot by illegal immigrant

Trump administration officials said Monday they will “flood” New York with more ICE agents after an off-duty border officer was shot during what authorities said was a robbery by two illegal immigrants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez was caught and released during the Biden administration and built up a lengthy criminal record, but was allowed to roam free by New York’s sanctuary policies.

On Saturday, he and another illegal immigrant tried to rob an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer at Riverside Park in the city, Ms. Noem said. He and the officer exchanged gunfire, and the officer was hit in the face.

Mr. Nunez was also struck.

Ms. Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan laid blame at the feet of New York’s lenient immigration and criminal justice policies, saying Mr. Nunez had many arrests in New York and Massachusetts, including charges of kidnapping, armed robbery with a firearm, witness intimidation, grand larceny and assault, but was still out on the city’s streets.

The two Trump officials said the city should have turned Mr. Nunez over from its jail after any of the arrests, but it didn’t. So they said they’ll send more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers out into communities to round them up.

“We’re gonna flood the zone,” Mr. Homan said.

The Saturday attack was captured on a grainy video, which shows two men on a motor scooter ride along, spot their target on the shore of the Hudson River, and circle back. One makes the approach, then pinpricks of gunfire erupt.

The wounded officer, who was not identified, was still hospitalized but is expected to recover. Both Mr. Nunez and the man accused of driving the scooter are in custody, and both are illegal immigrants, Ms. Noem said.

Authorities say the attempted robbery appears to have been a random targeting, though Ms. Noem said it comes at a time when attacks on federal immigration officers are rising.

She said ICE officers have seen an 830% increase in assaults.

Trump officials say that’s because more ICE officers are out in the community carrying out President Trump’s “mass deportation” plans — and they are facing rising anti-ICE rhetoric from those who oppose the increase in enforcement.

Mr. Nunez, a Dominican citizen, jumped the southern border in 2023. He was caught and released under lax Biden administration policies governing border arrests, then built his criminal record, but was never turned over to ICE for deportation.

“Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. Hard stop,” Mr. Homan said.

He said if the sanctuaries’ goal is to protect law-abiding immigrants, it’s backfiring because ICE will have to surge more people into communities to get targets — and if they find other illegal immigrants at the same time, they’ll arrest them, too.

Mr. Homan said the answer is for sanctuaries to allow ICE into their jails to arrest criminal illegal immigrants there.

“If we can’t arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail, we’ll arrest them in the community,” he said.