The migration crisis in the Big Apple takes on other dimensions, to mutate to more complicated scenarios.
It is no longer about the collapse of municipal shelters and the financial stress faced by the arrival of thousands of people, who take advantage of the local norm of the right to shelter. Now another question arises: To what extent and in what proportion, Have dangerous individuals or criminal gangs been able to sneak across the border and end up operating on the streets of New York City?
The video of a group of newly arrived migrants savagely attacking two police officers in Times Square and the discovery of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) about a criminal network of cell phone and wallet snatchingssupposedly headed by a Venezuelan, a few months after arriving, It injected fuel into old and new discussions.
Until this Wednesday, amid the indignation of the majority of New Yorkers, there are few questions that have a clear answer: Should the state’s bail law be reviewed again? Should the NYPD collaborate more actively with La Migra, in situations where migrants are a risk to public safety? Are more criminal background checks required at the border? Are New Yorkers at risk? criminal gangs have municipal shelters as their center of operation?
The Aragua Train in NY?
Some journalistic versions assure that behind these criminal incidents, there are no isolated incidents of people who go out individually to steal and attack, but rather there are fears that a dangerous organized criminal structure called “The Aragua Train”, emerged in Venezuela and controlled by prison leaders, has somehow penetrated New York.
NYPD so far has not confirmed the presence of elements at all of this group of extortion, assaults, hitmen, drug trafficking and kidnappings.
What is clear is that the authorities of Texas and cities like Miami and Chicago, have made clear the presence of criminals linked to this transnational organization, which clearly expanded in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
“I don’t know if they are from any gang, but you can’t cover the sun with a finger, unfortunately a lot of ‘bad behavior’ came here, which are harming the majority of us who came to give a better future to our children. We good people, who are the majority, must pray for this to be cleaned from the thugs (criminals),” she shared with El Diario, a Venezuelan immigrant outside the Row Hotelin downtown Manhattan, who for obvious reasons preferred to reserve his identity.
Another Venezuelan immigrant, who came with his wife and two minor children, with just three months in the City, points out that “sadly” a “little group” of criminals from their country, who already appear on televisiondefying the police, are “hitting” the image of all those who live in the shelters.
“We are the first ones interested in the police pursuing them. Here the majority came to look for an opportunity to work. There are young people who do not work and wear new clothes and shoes every day. That’s at least suspicious. But those criminal scandals, which have already gone around the world, “It finally destroys us all.” shared.
In a first look, NYPD Commissioner Edward Cabán, when he showed this Tuesday how a motorized gang, where 14 immigrants are involved, they were dedicated to snatching cell phones and wallets from women walking aloneacknowledged that in recent months, a wave of crimes clearly carried out by people staying in shelters “has invaded our city.”
Although he considered that “in no way do the individuals who commit these crimes, represent the large number of people who come to New Yorkto build a better life.”
Venezuelan Victor Parra is wanted by the NYPD for allegedly leading a gang dedicated to the theft of cell phones and wallets on the streets of the Big Apple. (Photo: M. Appleton – NYC Mayoral Office)
After phantom criminals
Cabán indicated that in this specific case, these are phantom criminals: without criminal records, without photos, without traces on social networks. Sometimes their name or date of birth is not even clear. And they also participate in extremely sophisticated operations.
There are a total of 62 incidents that have been connected to that theft pattern56 percent of these crimes took place in Manhattan.
During the investigation, it was detected that these perpetrators are part of a sophisticated criminal enterprise made up of migrants, who have recently arrived in the United States. This network lives predominantly in the migrant shelter system.
The leader of the gang was identified as Víctor Parra, a 30-year-old Venezuelan., who had already been arrested in November for grand theft and was released. The suspect, who is still being sought by police sleuths, used technicians to gain access to the banking applications on the stolen phones and carry out illegal transactions. The stolen equipment was then sent to Colombia.
In this criminal group, the alleged participation of María Manaura, 32, who had been arrested at least eight times in the six months since she arrived from Venezuela. The migrant lives at the Row NYC Hotel. She was charged with grand larceny and resisting arrest, but the judge granted her supervised release.
Like Manaura, most of those involved in this subplot of assaults, and the NYPD had “laid the glove,” for various crimes such as shoplifting and assaults. But they ended up entering the “revolving door” of the courts, due to the bail law reform in force since 2020, which allows that in the majority of crimes considered “minor” or “non-violent”, people can be released.
Another debate: Cooperate or not with ICE
Just hours before the information about the dismantling of this criminal group was released, the country was surprised when a video was released that showed how a group of young migrants kicked and attacked two police officers near the Amsterdam Theater in Times Square. The fact that the Prosecutor’s Office released the captured young people within hours unleashed a stinging controversy about the administration of criminal justice in New York.
In addition, it raised alarm bells among some elected leaders, to review, almost as an emergency, the local laws that since 2014 prohibit the Uniformed Party from cooperating and sharing data with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), because given the force of the facts, many believe that there should be exceptions.
Even in the midst of this diatribe, Mayor Eric Adams recalled that Venezuelan Víctor Parra, allegedly leader of the organization dedicated to cell phone thefts, He was arrested and is now a fugitive: Is this a time, where perhaps you should accept these ICE requests, especially because if you don’t, Are you sending the message to the police that I don’t care if they beat you, I’m not going to cooperate? he asked himself.
Regardless of these limits on collaboration between federal agencies and the NYPD, Governor Kathy Hochul was blunt in demanding: “get them all, send them back to their country. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”
For his part, the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Braggmaintains that it did not apply bail for several of these suspects, as it is working to confirm their identities and thoroughly investigate whether They were associated with the beating of the officers.
To date, of the six Venezuelan suspects arrested by NYPD, after the attack on the agents captured on camera, only one is detained at Rikers Island. The rest were released, but are due in court on March 4. Police sources say that four fled on a bus to California. This Tuesday, it emerged that these young people were detained by ICE in Phoenix on a Greyhound bus, a version that was denied by local authorities.
Prosecutor Bragg confirmed that Yohenry Brito, a 24-year-old migrant, The only one behind bars of the group of alleged attackers, he was seen on cameras wearing a yellow jacket, fighting with the agents when they tried to arrest him.
Others linked to the attack are still being tracked in shelters across the five boroughs. It is believed that a total of 13 people were involved. A special commission from the Uniformed Police assures that they will find out his whereabouts in the next few hours.
Deport them!
In the midst of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in Congress to approve new security measures on the border with Mexico, the congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island told local media that “this last fiscal year, ICE issued 109 arrest requests for people who are dangerouswho committed crimes in our city and none of them have been treated.”
Malliotakis and several Republican minority lawmakers are among the many elected leaders who believe that the immigrants who attacked two NYPD officers in Times Square, They should be deported, if found guilty.
In contrast, immigrant advocacy groups like Make The Road NY are demanding the NYPD release the body camera video at the time of the attack. In a statement, this organization described it as “deeply irresponsible to use an incident to vilify immigrant communities and attempt to reverse policies that have kept New Yorkers safe.”
A national problem
At the center of this controversy, Mayor Adams did not hesitate to remember that behind these discussions there are “a national problem.”
“We need a solution on both sides of the aisles. Republicans have blocked an immigration reform for many years. It’s time we address this issue that is impacting not only New York, but Chicago and Denver“.
The municipal leader reiterated that 175,000 migrants and asylum seekers They arrived in the Big Apple since spring 2022.
“They are just a group of people. Therefore, any New Yorker who considers those who are treating criminals to take the next step towards the American dream, you are wrong“, he concluded.
2024-02-08 13:46:41
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