News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Jan. 15, 2020: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency wants the undocumented Guyanese immigrant arrested for the murder of a 92-year-old New York City woman out.
ICE on Tuesday lodged a new detainer against Reeaz Khan, 21, a suspect in the murder of a 92-year-old Maria Fuentes of Richmond Hill, New York. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the victim was found “with her clothes pulled above her waist and near death” and called the slaying “a senseless, brutal act of violence.”
Khan is at Rikers Island currently and is charged with murder, sexual abuse, contact by forcible compulsion, and sexual abuse against a person incapable of consent.
ICE officials claim Khan would not have been on the street if New York City’s sanctuary policies had not protected him from an active detainer on November 2019.
Khan was arrested by the NYPD on Nov. 27th for the charges of assault, and criminal possession of a weapon on his father. On that same date, ERO deportation officers lodged a detainer with the NYPD which ICE said was not honored, and Khan was released following arraignment.
“It is made clear that New York City’s stance against honoring detainers is dangerously flawed. It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets after his first arrest included assault and weapon charges, and he now faces new charges, including murder,” said Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “New York City’s sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs, as they repeatedly protect criminal aliens who show little regard for the laws of this nation. In New York City alone, hundreds of arrestees are released each month with pending charges and/or convictions to return back into the communities where they committed their crimes, instead of being transferred into the custody of ICE. Clearly the politicians care more about criminal illegal aliens than the citizens they are elected to serve and protect.”
The NYPD refuted ICE’s version of what happened, insisting the department was never notified about any detainer in this case while NY City Hall was quoted by the NY Daily News as saying the “….standard for turning over suspects was conviction rather than just allegations.”
