WASHINGTON — President Trump is expected to sharply criticize Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York’s “sanctuary” policies when he campaigns with Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman in Syracuse on Friday. The rally follows two violent incidents that have intensified debate over immigration enforcement.
Last week, two undocumented immigrants with criminal records allegedly stabbed an off-duty New York Police Department detective in the Bronx during an attempted robbery.
The suspects, 25-year-old D’Angelo Caraballo and 24-year-old Sneider Mejia Bautista, both Dominican nationals, were arrested early Wednesday after authorities said they tried to hide in a basement in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Caraballo had previously been jailed on charges including reckless driving, unlawfully fleeing from an officer and criminal possession of a loaded firearm, among other offenses.
He was released by local authorities after his December 2024 arrest.
Bautista, meanwhile, was arrested in October of last year on allegations including grand larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and property theft. He was later released after the NYPD declined to honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer.
Then, Thursday afternoon, ICE officers shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old man suspected of belonging to a migrant gang. A 5-year-old boy believed to be his son was sitting in the back of Belgal’s SUV during the encounter in the Bronx’s Marble Hill neighborhood.
The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal is suspected of having ties to the notorious Trinitarios gang. The agency also said he has “a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession.”
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“This criminal illegal alien was arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023, but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk,” the department said.
In August, Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which placed limits on certain forms of statewide cooperation with ICE in civil immigration matters.
“New Yorkers are outraged tonight. Immigrant communities are terrified. And we are demanding answers,” Hochul said in a statement after the Marble Hill shooting.
“Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and DHS Secretary Mullin about the shooting in Marble Hill,” the governor wrote on X. “I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York. I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.”
Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger and an underdog in most polls, said earlier this week that he would sign an executive order requiring local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE if elected on Nov. 3.
“The insanity is over, we’re putting New Yorkers first,” the Nassau County executive said. He added that “one of the toughest days” of his tenure “was the day that I had to tell our police and our sheriffs that they could no longer cooperate with ICE because of Kathy Hochul.”
Syracuse and the surrounding area of Onondaga County form a Democratic-leaning pocket in otherwise heavily Republican central New York. Beyond supporting Blakeman, Trump is expected to use Friday’s rally to boost Kailee Buller, a former USDA official and Republican House candidate challenging first-term Democratic Rep. John Mannion.
Before the rally, the Trump administration has drawn attention to several undocumented immigrants arrested in Syracuse in connection with disturbing criminal allegations.
The cases highlighted include Hsa Mu Na, who is accused of sexually exploiting a minor; Norberto Machado-Rodriguez, who faced allegations of sexual assault; Haikham Phimasone, who was accused of assault; and Said Ibrahim, who was accused of cruelty toward a child.