New York sanctuary politicians are determined to release an illegal alien arsonist who killed multiple people in order to stick it to Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Mexican national Roman Amatitla randomly selected an NYC apartment building to set ablaze on March 16. He injured seven people and killed four, including a toddler. Now he faces eight counts of second-degree murder and first-degree arson, according to the New York Post. The local authorities ought to be handing the illegal alien over to ICE, but they refuse to do so.
Democrats have become so fanatical in their opposition to federal immigration enforcement that they are seemingly more likely to release or defend a murderer after ICE places a detainer request than to comply both with federal law and with the request.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) angrily responded to the news on X. “This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death,” the department posted. “New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are committing to RELEASING this MURDERER onto New York streets. New York’s sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety.”
ICE ARREST DETAINER DENIED.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 17, 2026
On April 14, ICE requested the NYCDOC not release this monster from jail back into American communities.
However, because of New York’s sanctuary politicians, the NYCDOC told ICE that they will REFUSE to cooperate. https://t.co/3jQwPSn9Qu pic.twitter.com/zmIxMOaFH5
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DHS called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to honor the ICE detainer. Unfortunately, both Hochul and Mamdani have expressed the most radical opposition to immigration enforcement and the most shameful determination to defend foreign criminals.
The New York Post wrote:
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that on the day of the blaze, Amatitla entered and exited the Avery Avenue building multiple times, urinated in front of the apartments, and then went to a nearby gas station — where he bought a beer, stole a second one and took a pack of matches after refusing to pay for a lighter.
Authorities allege he then entered the apartment building for a fourth and final time, lighting a piece of paper on fire and tossing it onto trash near a stairwell.
Amatitla then stayed in the street so he could watch people jump out of the windows of the burning building to their deaths while he sipped his beer. This piece of human trash needs the death penalty.
Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told the Post, “New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are choosing to RELEASE this MURDERER onto New York streets…Releasing this monster from jail is insanity and will allow him to commit more crimes and create more innocent victims.”
But the whole point of sanctuary policies is that the politicians who implement them could not care less about victims of illegal alien crime. Hochul and Mamdani are as heartless about the murdered three-year-old's death as the killer Amatitla is.
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