Border Czar Vows to Target Sanctuary Cities After New York Shooting Involving Undocumented Suspects: 'We're Going to Flood the Zone'

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Following the shooting of an off-duty federal officer in New York City and the subsequent arrest of two undocumented Dominican nationals in connection to the crime, Homeland Security officials have pledged to intensify immigration enforcement in sanctuary cities.

Tom Homan, the Trump administration's border czar, said Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will expand its presence in areas where local governments do not cooperate with federal immigration efforts.

"We're going to flood the zone," Homan said during a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reported by The Guardian. He added that if local jails refuse to turn over undocumented individuals, ICE agents would make arrests in the community instead:

"What we're going to do [is deploy] more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy so sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want – more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite. If we can't arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of the county jail, we'll arrest him in the community. And when we arrest him in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they are coming too"

In this context, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez and Christhian Aybar-Berroa, both Dominican, were arrested in connection with the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer in Manhattan's Riverside Park on Saturday night, NBC News reported.

According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the off-duty agent was approached by two men on a scooter, one of whom brandished a firearm. A shootout followed, leaving the agent with injuries to the face and arm. Mora, identified by police as the alleged shooter, later arrived at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds.

Mora entered the U.S. unlawfully through Arizona in 2023 and had four prior arrests, including domestic violence charges, an outstanding warrant, and connections to a robbery and stabbing, according to Tisch. Aybar-Berroa was also in the U.S. without authorization and had been ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2023.

Secretary Noem blamed the incident on New York's sanctuary city policies, stating:

"Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today, fighting for his life, because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the city council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe, they refused to do so"