Guyanese man accused of murdering Queens woman, 92, should have been deported – ICE

The brutal slaying of an elderly woman in Queens, allegedly by an undocumented Guyanese man, has sparked a national debate over US immigration policies.
The federal immigration officials are blaming the city’s sanctuary policy for enabling the crime and City Hall, in turn, has criticised the federal officials for using the tragedy to trumpet their immigration agenda.
According to an article in the New York Times, the rape and murder of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes became a flash point in the broader debate over immigration on Tuesday when federal authorities contended that the suspect should not have been in the country in the first place.
Reaz Khan, 21, had confessed to the slaying of Maria Fuentes, 92, outside her home in Queens after authorities picked him up last week. He was subsequently charged on Friday with murder and sexual assault.
According to the New York Times, the officials said the suspect had beaten up his father during an altercation in November that had resulted in his arrest, leading federal authorities at the time to ask New York City to hand him over for possible deportation.
Instead, he was arrested again on Friday and charged with the murder of Fuertes.
In a statement issued by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, officials said Mr. Khan was “an unlawfully present Guyanese national” who had been released “due to New York City’s sanctuary policies.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers assigned to the Criminal Alien Program lodged a detainer with the New York Police Department (NYPD), following their arrest of the suspect.
Detainers are requests by ICE to hold undocumented immigrants who have been charged or convicted of crimes for 48 hours after their release so that immigration agents can pick them up.
According to ICE, Khan, “an unlawfully present Guyanese national”, was arrested Jan. 10 by the NYPD and charged with murder, sexual abuse, contact by forcible compulsion, and sexual abuse against a person incapable of consent. ICE said that Khan was previously released from local law enforcement custody in November 2019 with an active detainer, due to New York City’s sanctuary policies.
“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,” ICE said.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Daily News, Prosecutors say after he was arrested for the crime, the suspect gave conflicting accounts of what happened. At one point he bizarrely claimed he fell down, his belt buckle broke and “his pants fell down and his penis fell near the victim’s vagina but he did not have intercourse with her”.
Khan later told officials he did lift her skirt up and tried to put his penis inside of her and “did not know what came over him,” according to the complaint.
In jail Sunday, he tried to recast that comment.
“I didn’t mean I raped her,” he claimed. “I meant when I was with her I don’t know what came over me and I ran.’
Fuertes was a beloved neighbourhood fixture known to take late night walks to collect empty cans and bottles. Locals often called her “cat lady” out of affection because she housed seven cats and would put food out every day for the local strays.
Khan, who moved to New York from Guyana with his family, had been flopping between friends’ homes since November when he was arrested for jabbing his dad in the chest and arm with a broken ceramic mug. He was only recently allowed to return to his family’s home and is due back in court Jan. 23 to face assault charges in that case.
On Friday, Khan’s dad declined to defend his son.
He was quoted in another section of the media as saying: “You make your kids, but you don’t make their minds,” father Afraz Khan said. “We’re very sorry for what happened. Our sympathies go out to that woman’s family.”