The Department of Homeland Security launched a public attack against Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, demanding they abandon sanctuary protections for a man sentenced for sexually assaulting a deceased subway passenger, Fox News reported.
A judge sentenced Felix Jeronimo-Rojas, 44, to five years behind bars Wednesday for the sexual violation and robbery of Jorge Gonzalez, 37, whose body sat lifeless on the R train near the Whitehall Street station in Lower Manhattan.
Federal authorities filed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer and pressed elected officials to comply.
“We need Kathy Hochul and New York sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien after his prison sentence,” DHS declared. “We need cooperation from sanctuary politicians to ensure depraved criminals like this are not released into our communities.”
Gonzalez stepped onto the subway at approximately 7:52 p.m. on April 8, 2025. The governor holds authority over statewide immigration enforcement policy while Mamdani directs how municipal bodies such as the New York Police Department and the Department of Correction apply sanctuary rules.
Federal officials informed Fox News Digital that New York freed 6,947 illegal immigrants carrying criminal convictions between January 20 and December 1 during the previous year.
According to DHS records, Jeronimo-Rojas crossed into America without authorization four times from 1998 to 1999. On each occasion he voluntarily departed to Mexico following contact with Border Patrol. He subsequently reentered the country “for FIFTH time at an unknown date and location,” DHS confirmed.
Approximately three weeks following the incident, Jeronimo-Rojas turned himself over to authorities. He admitted that surveillance cameras captured him at the scene but rejected accusations of rape and theft. He entered a guilty plea carrying 15 years of supervised release after completing his prison term. He remained silent during sentencing proceedings.
Gonzalez arrived in the United States roughly two decades ago seeking employment to provide for relatives back in Mexico.
“He wasn’t just a random person, he was a father, he was a family man, he cared about his family in Mexico,” his 38-year-old wife Teresa shared with the New York Post.
“He did construction, he worked in kitchens, he worked as a waiter, he was a busboy. You know, anything you really could do to try to get ahead,” added Teresa, who had lived apart from him for six years.
This barbaric act demonstrates precisely why the United States must pursue a complete overhaul of immigration policy encompassing both legal and illegal entry. An individual who breached American borders on five distinct occasions ultimately perpetrated an unthinkable crime because existing enforcement mechanisms failed to permanently bar him. Unless lawmakers implement sweeping immigration restrictions and compel local governments to cooperate with federal deportation efforts, incidents like this will continue spreading throughout the nation.
