SYRACUSE, N.Y. — President Donald J. Trump brought the case for law and order straight to Kathy Hochul’s backyard Friday night. “Just last week, two illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic who were released into our country by Crooked Joe Biden and had numerous prior arrests — they had a rap sheet like you wouldn’t believe, one after another — attempted to rob an off-duty New York police officer, stabbing, hacking, and slashing him seven times,” the President told a packed Oncenter crowd.
The facts are as brutal as he described. On October 2, off-duty NYPD Detective Jose Mercedes, 33, of the Bronx’s 44th Precinct, was clearing out the trunk of his car when two men pulled up and tried to snatch his gold chain. When he fought back, he was stabbed seven times, and he still chased his attackers for two blocks before collapsing. The suspects, Dangelo Rafael Jean Caraballo, 25, and Sneider Mejia Bautista, 24, both Dominican nationals, fled the state and were found by the U.S. Marshals hiding in a basement in Lynn, Massachusetts, early on October 7. They face attempted murder charges. Detective Mercedes walked out of Jacobi Medical Center on his own two feet as hundreds of fellow officers cheered.
The Department of Homeland Security says both men crossed illegally through Arizona and were released by the Biden administration. Bautista had a removal order dating to May 8, 2025, and after his October 2025 weapon arrest, local officials refused an ICE detainer under New York City’s sanctuary policies. “Both of these suspects were released into the country by the Biden administration, and despite multiple prior arrests in New York, sanctuary politicians refused to cooperate with ICE and released them,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
The President praised the men and women cleaning up the mess. In recent weeks, he said, ICE arrested in New York a Dominican national previously convicted of murder and a Mexican national with convictions for rape and forgery. “And just yesterday, our heroes of ICE apprehended a man with a criminal record a mile long who was wanted for possible murder,” he said. “But instead of being praised, ICE was scorned by New York politicians.” Nationally, he said, the border is the strongest in history, with zero illegal aliens admitted in the past 17 months: “Thank you, Tom Homan.”
The President gave New Yorkers the fix. “If you want to stop illegal alien criminals from being released into your communities, you must elect Bruce Blakeman and the Republican Congress, and we will ban sanctuary cities and sanctuary states,” he said. And he made Blakeman a promise: if the next governor asks for help in New York City, “I’ll be there within 24 hours.” Watch the Official White House video.
