WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed Friday that New York state officials have refused to honor a single detainer request from his department for illegal immigrants in their custody, many of whom had “extensive criminal backgrounds.”
The Department of Homeland Security has issued 14,766 detainers to New York law enforcement entities, Mullin noted, for migrants accused of a total of 47,750 felony charges.
“Silence. Absolute silence is what we’ve got from New York off of those retainers,” Mullin told reporters at DHS headquarters.
“So you have to ask yourself, why would they release these individuals back onto the streets? They’re illegals,” he added. “They have no right to be back into the United States. They’ve committed a crime. We know that they’re the worst, the worst.”
The comments came hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting in the Bronx of a suspected gang member, 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, while a 5-year-old boy believed to be his son sat in the back of his SUV.
