NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed Tuesday that ICE agents were turned away from a precinct where a teen migrant involved in last week’s violent mob attack on two officers in Times Square was being held.
Tisch revealed the standoff during a press briefing, where she also fiercely defended the NYPD’s use of its controversial gang database—a tool that she said was instrumental in tracking down suspects connected to the attack, many of whom are linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and its New York offshoot Diablos de la 42.
“You can’t fight organized violence with blindfolds on,” Tisch said. “Without this tool, we’d lose the edge that keeps our city safe.”
Tisch also slammed the City Council for seeking to abolish the NYPD gang database, calling it one of the department’s most vital tools for identifying and stopping organized youth violence.
“It absolutely defies common sense that our City Council is looking to abolish this database,” she said. “We need them to stop legislating against our cops and start legislating for public safety.”
According to the NYPD, 37 members of the Diabolitos gang have been identified through the database, with a collective 240 prior arrests. So far this year, 107 guns linked to Tren de Aragua have been seized.
The shocking attack, caught on video and first reported by ViralNewsNYC, took place Friday night in the heart of Times Square. A mob of roughly a dozen young migrants, allegedly affiliated with the Diabolitos crew, swarmed and assaulted two patrolling NYPD officers after they tried to intervene in a robbery.
The suspects hurled scooters, basketballs, and other makeshift weapons at the officers in what Tisch described as a “planned and deliberate ambush.”
Among those arrested was a 12-year-old boy already known to authorities as a ringleader in multiple violent robberies, including an August mugging in the subway. Officials say he was also behind a string of Central Park assaults last summer.
“This is not low-level crime. It’s organized violence,” Tisch emphasized. “And now they’re back—ambushing cops in the middle of Times Square. This is not a fluke; it’s a system failure.”
Despite the severity of the incident and the gang affiliations of the suspects, ICE agents who arrived at an NYPD precinct on Sunday to apprehend one of the teens were turned away. Commissioner Tisch confirmed the NYPD followed protocol under the city’s sanctuary city directive, which bars cooperation with ICE.
ICE’s presence at the precinct is currently under investigation, as city officials try to determine how federal agents were tipped off. Mayor Eric Adams suggested a bystander or witness may have alerted ICE independently.
Despite the severity of the attack and gang affiliations, all four suspects arrested so far—including the 12-year-old—have been released pending charges ranging from attempted assault to inciting a riot. A fifth suspect, a 16-year-old recidivist, was taken into custody Tuesday but released without charges.
Police are currently searching for at least three more suspects between the ages of 15 and 20, with surveillance photos released to the public Tuesday. Officials emphasized the seriousness of the threat posed by youth gangs operating under the umbrella of Tren de Aragua.
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Feds need to go in and take them along with their families and DEPORT THEM! Millions to go.