NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration lashed out Monday against New York City officials over their “sanctuary” policies as authorities arrested a second man living in the country illegally in connection with the nonfatal shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called the two suspects, both from the Dominican Republic, “scum of the earth.” She said they’d accumulated lengthy criminal records in just a few years and should not have been free to commit Saturday’s robbery-gone-wrong in a Manhattan park.
Noem blamed the mayor and city council, nearly all Democrats, saying “the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe refused to do so.”
Border czar Tom Homan, meanwhile, vowed the administration would “flood the zone” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following the shooting.
“So sanctuary cities get exactly what they don’t want: more agents in the community,” he said alongside Noem and other officials during a news conference at CBP’s offices in Manhattan.
New York and other cities have longstanding laws and policies that limit or restrict local government involvement in federal immigration enforcement. New York Democrats also passed a 2019 law abolishing pretrial incarceration for most nonviolent offenses, modifying a system that had previously allowed wealthier defendants to go free while they awaited trial by paying bail, while denying release to those who didn’t have the money.
Christhian Aybar Berroa, who authorities accused of being the getaway driver, was apprehended early Monday, officials said.
The man accused of being the shooter, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, was arrested Sunday after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds to the groin and leg. Police say Mora Nunez shot the CBP officer in the face and arm before being wounded and fleeing.
The 42-year-old officer, who was not in uniform, had been sitting with a woman in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge when two men approached on a moped, according to police. When he realized he was being robbed, the officer drew his service weapon. Both he and one of the robbers fired, police said.
The officer, who has not been identified by authorities, is recovering and is expected to survive, Noem said. He works for CBP, whose officers are stationed at airports and other border crossings.
No lawyers were listed for Aybar Berroa or Mora Nunez on the federal court case database.
Aybar Berroa has been arrested at least four times since his arrival in the U.S. in 2022, according to Noem.
She said he’d been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in 2023, but New York City officials ignored a request that he be detained so federal agents could take him into custody.
Police say Mora Nunez, 21, entered the country illegally in 2023 and had two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York. He is wanted in New York to face accusations of robbery and felony assault, and in Massachusetts over a stolen weapons case.
Mayor Eric Adams, at a separate press conference, distanced himself from the so-called sanctuary city policies that Noem and other federal officials blamed for the shooting.
“I’ve always been clear: stop the revolving door system,” said the former police captain, who has long called for increased cooperation between city police and federal immigration authorities. “Go after the dangerous migrants and asylum seekers.”
At the same time, Adams said the city’s sanctuary policies were enacted in order to encourage otherwise law-abiding immigrants to seek police help or medical care without fear of being deported.
Adams issued an executive order earlier this year allowing ICE and other federal agencies to maintain office space at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
That plan, a priority for President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, was blocked by a state judge last month.
The City Council had sued, casting it as a concerning potential case of Adams changing city policy in return for Trump’s Justice Department dropping corruption charges against him.
The New York Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocates criticized Noem and federal officials on Monday for “exploiting a tragedy” to further the Republican administration’s immigration agenda.
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