Latest update November 15th, 2024 1:00 AM
Collision course for Guyanese man, US President, murdered woman, and New York
New York (New York Daily News)- Immigrant groups are standing fast in their support of New York City’s sanctuary laws amid President Trump’s claim Tuesday that the laws led to the rape and murder of a 92-year-old Queens woman.
Charged: Reeaz Khan
More than 120 groups signed a letter to Mayor de Blasio supporting the city’s detainer policies and slamming the criticism Trump delivered in his State of the Union speech.
“We are deeply distraught by the Trump administration’s efforts to exploit and politicize the tragic death of Maria Fuertes,” the letter said.
“The administration’s repeated scapegoating of immigrants has alarmed communities across the country. It is clearly a coordinated attempt to divide communities while the President advances his anti-immigrant, hate-filled agenda.”
The letter’s signers — including the Immigrant Defense Project, Make the Road New York, Safe Horizon and the Legal Aid Society — support city policy of not complying with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers that request local law enforcement to turn over certain undocumented immigrants for deportation.
During his State of the Union address, Trump cited the brutal sexual assault and murder Jan. 6 of 92-year-old Queens resident
Killed: Maria Fuertes
Maria Fuertes.
Reeaz Khan, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Guyana who ICE sought to deport after a Nov. 2019 assault, is accused of sexually abusing and murdering Fuertes as she scavenged for returnable bottles and cans in Richmond Hill.
Khan’s brother identified him as the suspect after a video of the incident was released by police.
“Just 29 days ago, a criminal alien freed by the sanctuary city of New York was charged with the brutal rape and murder of a 92-year-old woman,” Trump said. “The killer had been previously arrested for assault, but under New York’s sanctuary policies, he was set free. If the city had honored ICE’s detainer request, his victim would be alive today.”
ICE officials said they targeted Khan for deportation following a Nov. 27 attack on his father with a broken coffee cup, but that they got the cold shoulder from the city because of its sanctuary policies.
Khan was free while awaiting trial in the coffee cup assault when he was busted in Fuerte’s murder.
A week after Fuertes died, ICE field office director for removal operations Thomas Decker slammed the city over its “deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back on the streets, and now he faces new charges, including murder.”
But Decker’s and Trump’s version of the story is incomplete — the NYPD has said it never received a detainer from ICE in the case.
“It’s a common tactic to exploit individual tragedies to attack policies regardless of the public safety data underlying them,” said Peter Markowitz, director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic at the Cardozo School of Law.
“Thankfully New York City won’t be intimidated,” Markowitz said. “We’re used to Trump’s bluster. We’re used to ICE’s racist and xenophobic rhetoric and we’re unwavering in our support of immigrant communities.“
The city’s policy is not to approve ICE’s detainers or requests for notification from local law enforcement unless someone has been convicted — not just charged — of a serious or violent crime. Khan had only been charged with assault when ICE issued a detainer to the NYPD.
“The detainer law helps protect New Yorkers, including immigrants, by disentangling local policing from mass deportation,” said the immigrant groups’ letter to de Blasio.
Immigrant advocates say the city’s policy on detainers keeps New Yorkers safe by maintaining trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.
“If you have perception that the NYPD is partnering with ICE, that will scare people in immigrant communities from calling police. It makes communities less safe because then abusers are left to be free,” said Evangeline Chan, director of the Immigration Law Project for Safe Horizon.
“Local laws that center due process and trust, like New York’s, have proven to lead to low crime and increased public safety,” said Bitta Mostofi, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Mostofi said that in his speech, Trump showed he “continues to exploit tragic circumstances to intimidate cities and advance a xenophobic agenda.”
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