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An illegal immigrant from Venezuela was arrested by police in New York City nine times in just 4½ months, tallying nearly two dozen charges.
Among Daniel Hernandez-Martinez’s charges are assault, menacing, possession of a weapon, aggravated harassment, petit larceny and possession of stolen property.
After the first seven arrests, the Department of Homeland Security decided he was enough of a danger to be brought in and issued a deportation detainer request to have him turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But New York refused the detainer and Mr. Hernandez-Martinez was released, allowing him to amass new charges of possession of stolen property, petit larceny, disorderly conduct and obstructing government officials.
The House Judiciary Committee detailed the arrests and charges in a report this week, based on Mr. Hernandez-Martinez’s A-file. That is the master immigration document that details someone’s entire immigration history and known criminal entanglements.
“Hernandez-Martinez’s victims will never be the same because the Biden-Harris Administration allowed him to enter the country. Tragically, Hernandez-Martinez’s victims are not alone,” the committee said.
The panel obtained the A-file after a lengthy battle with Homeland Security. It shows that Mr. Hernandez-Martinez was arrested by Border Patrol agents near Ysleta, Texas, on Jan. 23, 2023. But the file doesn’t say whether he was checked against databases and does not detail the authority that was used to release him into the community.
One entry in Mr. Hernandez-Martinez’s file says he is a suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang, a Venezuela-based outfit that has deployed its members to the U.S. to wreak mayhem.
If that gang affiliation was known at the time of his initial arrest, it could have kept him in immigration detention and made him a candidate for speedy deportation.
The committee said Mr. Hernandez-Martinez made his way to New York, where he began a “crime spree” in June. He tallied one arrest at the end of that month, two in July, four arrests in the span of nine days in August, and another arrest each in October and early November.
The committee says it’s not clear whether Mr. Hernandez-Martinez has been deported.
The report says ICE was prevented from apprehending Mr. Hernandez-Martinez earlier because of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ orders limiting deportations.
“In practical terms, the Mayorkas memo limits ICE officers’ ability to arrest criminal aliens,” the committee charged.
Republicans say the file contains evidence of Homeland Security’s “stonewalling” Congress. The file indicates that ICE pulled all the information on Mr. Hernandez-Martinez six months before the department finally turned it over to the Judiciary Committee.
Venezuelans have rushed to the U.S. in recent years, pushed by growing chaos in their home country and drawn by relaxed immigration enforcement here.
They grew so numerous that Homeland Security in late 2022 created a special “parole” program to try to siphon them away from the border. Under that program, Venezuelans who secure a financial sponsor in the U.S. and pre-schedule their arrivals are allowed to fly into airports inside the U.S. and be released on “parole,” despite lacking any legal visa to enter.
The Biden administration revealed last week that the program, which has since been expanded to include Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, is rife with fraud and has been put on hold.
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