Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the 33-year-old Guatemalan illegal immigrant arrested in connection with the horrifying murder of a woman riding a New York City subway, first entered the U.S. near Sonoita, Arizona, on June 1, 2018. Federal immigration officials told the Associated Press (AP) that Zapeta-Calilis came across the border illegally. NBC News specified that the suspect was deported back to Guatemala approximately a week later on June 7, 2018.
According to authorities cited by the AP, Zapeta-Calil approached the unidentified victim, who may have been asleep on the train, and set her clothes on fire with a lighter. He then allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt, causing the woman to become engulfed in flames, according to Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg.
Rottenberg told the court on Tuesday that the suspect then sat on a subway platform bench and watched the woman burn. Zapeta-Calil reportedly told responding detectives that he did not know what happened, but he later identified himself in footage of the attack.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, “Officers who were on patrol on an upper level of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames.” Gothamist reported via a statement from Jeff Carter, a spokesman for ICE, that Zapeta-Calil was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in June 2018 and was deported. He later reentered the U.S. and ultimately made his way to New York City.
The suspect, like hundreds of other illegal immigrants in New York, was reportedly living at the sprawling, crime-riddled 3,000-migrant tent shelter on Randall’s Island. A spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams told the outlet that Zapeta-Calil arrived well before the massive influx of illegal immigrants that began in 2022 but added he’d been in and out of city-run shelters since his arrival.
Responding to the shocking murder on Fox 5 Monday, Adams told reporters “Yes, this is a country of immigrants. It’s a country of those who want to seek to pursue the American dream. But those who violate that pursuit, we need to immediately remove them from our country. After they served their time, I don’t want to turn them back into a country just to have them sneak back in and the family members are not receiving justice for what happened.”
ICE spokesperson Marie Ferguson, told Newsweek in a statement, “The New York City Police Department arrested Zapeta-Calil as part of its investigation into the murder of a woman on a subway in Coney Island, New York. Once he is charged and a holding location is released, ERO will lodge an immigration detainer with the NYPD location where he is being held.”
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, a grand jury has indicted Zapeta-Calil on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder as well as one count of first-degree arson. The suspect was remanded back into custody and has pleaded not guilty. He reportedly told police that “he drinks a lot of liquor” and “doesn’t know what happened,” prosecutors told the court.
Criminals posing as asylum seekers are turning American cities into war zones.
The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, feared for how it tortures its victims, is setting up business in New York City, police sources reveal.
Gang members recruit migrants from shelters and as they come off buses from Texas, put them to work in retail theft rings or on mopeds, grabbing phones and handbags and roughing up pedestrians.
“This is organized crime. It’s just like the Mafia,” says Paul DiGiacomo, president of the NYC Detectives’ Endowment Association.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban warns of a “wave of migrant crime.” Democratic pols deny it. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says migrants “are looking for a better life.” True for many, not all.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander accuses Caban of “fear mongering” and using a “Republican talking point.”
Migrants in moped gangs and retail theft rings, some carrying guns, are terrorizing the Big Apple, Yonkers and New Jersey.
Two-man teams snatch pedestrians’ phones and deliver them to Tren de Aragua stash houses, where professional hackers make fraudulent banking transactions and drain cash from all accounts. Then the phones are wiped clean and shipped to South America for resale.
A 62-year-old woman was brutally dragged down a Brooklyn street by one of these moped thieves who made off with her purse. When you see mopeds, step back from the curb and hug the building — advice usually needed in a third-world city, not New York.
A shopper at JD Sports near Times Square was shot in the leg by baby-faced, 15-year-old migrant Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa when a security guard tried to stop him from robbing the store on Feb. 8. Figueroa whipped out a .45-caliber handgun and shot into the crowd. He has since been apprehended by police.
The next job is to track down the ringleaders who armed him and sent him into the store. The teen had been living in the Stratford Hotel, a city shelter, with his mother and attending school. He is also a suspect in a Jan. 25 incident in Midtown and a Jan. 27 robbery in the Bronx. After his first run-in with cops, the shelter system should have been notified and Figueroa should have been evicted.
Chicago is also being terrorized. There, professional criminals enlist migrants from the shelters to raid luxury stores at the suburban Oakbrook Center shopping mall, 5 miles west of the city. These migrants wouldn’t have a clue where Oak Brook, an upscale suburb, is, or how to get there without the criminal masterminds.
South American gangs are turning suburban malls into danger zones, explains retired Riverside, Illinois, Police Chief Tom Weitzel. “You’re at one of the suburban malls … pushing your kids in a stroller” and you can get caught in the violence, he said in an interview with Fox News.
“A lot more crossing the border are criminals or have criminal intent than is being publicly said,” Weitzel added.
Paul Mauro, a retired inspector of the NYPD, agrees. The claim that Venezuela is emptying its prisons is accurate, he suggested in a separate interview with Fox News.
Blame President Joe Biden’s open borders, but also the soft-on-crime Democrats in New York and Illinois, whose policies almost guarantee that migrant criminals can rob and assault without ever going to jail.
Hochul sweetens the attraction by guaranteeing asylum seekers cash welfare benefits — something the federal government bars so state and local taxpayers have to foot the entire bill.
On top of that, New York City is court-mandated to guarantee shelter to all, something Mayor Eric Adams should seek to overturn. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny observed that “the network of thieves” lives mostly in the shelter system.
That includes the migrants who beat up two cops at Times Square on Jan. 27. They had a string of previous arrests but were still living in shelters, courtesy of N.Y. taxpayers.
Adams is imposing an 11 p.m. curfew at some shelters. That’s window dressing.
Providing room and board to the same people who rob and threaten us makes no sense. Once migrants get in trouble with the law, the shelter system should be notified and they should be evicted. The only shelter they get should be at Rikers.
The Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor.” It doesn’t say your lawbreakers, brutes and gang leaders.
Betsy McCaughey is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The immigration crisis is crushing New York City. According to ABC7 news, last week alone 2,900 new “asylum seekers” entered one of the city’s 200 new emergency shelters.
Mayor Eric Adams says the city spends $383 per day per family on food, shelter, and other expenses, which are deemed the migrants’ right to receive for no charge or obligation because well…just because.
The formerly elegant Roosevelt Hotel has been designated the nerve center for services to accommodate the 120,000 illegal immigrants now in the city. Mayor Adams estimates the city will incur a $12 billion deficit as a result of the influx, meaning that “every service in the city is going to be impacted.” Fifteen percent across-the-board budget cuts are seriously looming.
Yet the expenditures are not adequate to address the surge. Immigrants are occupying the sidewalks in front of the Roosevelt, locals are fuming over the takeover of schools, parks, and other public facilities while reports of subway crime are beginning to pop up. Maybe the sanctuary status the Mayor pressed for, when the costs were borne elsewhere, isn’t such a great idea after all.
Mayor Adams correctly points out that since border law is a federal matter, the feds should help alleviate the distress they are causing. What we’re getting instead is outrageous gaslighting. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insists that President Biden has actually done a great job of protecting the border “and you have seen him do that.”
We have? This is the president who unilaterally eliminated policies like Remain in Mexico and Title 42, which effectively reduced the number of illegal border crossings. The result has been a surge of approximately 2.7 million people on Biden’s watch, 260,00 this August alone. That doesn’t include the “gotaways”, who are uncountable, but estimated to number at least 1.5 million during the Biden administration.
It’s no wonder Americas are starting to feel the strains in social services, healthcare, schools, and prisons. Their advocates claim illegal immigrants are an economic boon, but if that were, why do leftist enclaves complain bitterly about receiving them instead of requesting more?
Truth check: immigrants cost taxpayers $150 billion annually and growing. Even worse is the humanitarian crisis caused by cartels victimizing women and children vulnerable to “human trafficking.”
Illegal immigrants are often erroneously referred to in the popular press as “asylum seekers.” That’s a lie. Imaginary asylum seeking is the (very successful) strategy used to circumvent lawful border enforcement. Immigrants not otherwise eligible for entry are coached to say “I feel unsafe” to border agents. That automatically entitles them to an asylum hearing, which, because of the crowding at the border, is scheduled years in the future.
It’s a farce. They pretend to be seeking asylum, and we pretend to believe them. Fewer than 10 percent are eligible for legitimate asylum. Most never show up for their hearing.
Democrats also like to pretend there is nothing they can do about the ongoing border invasion because Republicans once voted against a bill that included additional border funding. But if Republicans were willing to discuss comprehensive immigration reform, maybe we could talk…
That gives away their game. “Comprehensive” reform is a euphemism for citizenship. The Biden administration willingly pays a high price politically for their devastating border policies. The hardships caused by unlimited immigration are causing widespread resentment. An election looms.
Yet they soldier on, refusing to consider even the most reasonable measures to reduce the ongoing surge. There’s only one possible explanation: they are playing the long game, taking hits now to achieve future political domination.
They see the 20 million or so foreign nationals now living here as future Democrats, who they will relentlessly portray as victims if not eventually granted citizenship. The gambit will work again. The American political landscape will be changed forever.
There is a way out. It’s not more money. It’s not more laws. It’s not even a wall. We must simply follow the example of decent, self-respecting nations throughout history and employ the lawful force of government to maintain our sovereign borders.
Follow the Law. It’s doable, it’s moral, and it’s necessary to protect legal immigrants, American citizens, and America’s future.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
Governor Doug Ducey told Democratic mayors of the nation’s capital and most populous city, respectively, that they shouldn’t complain to him about asylum seekers, but should petition their party since it bears ultimate responsibility. Since April, Texas and Arizona have sent over 4,000 migrants to D.C.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser complained to CBS News that Ducey and Texas Governor Greg Abbott were “tricking” illegal immigrants seeking asylum into boarding buses headed for her city. Bowser said that these buses were overwhelming D.C.’s homeless shelters.
“I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America,” said Bowser.
Homeless shelters in Washington D.C. are filling up with asylum seekers from Texas and Arizona. Mayor Bowser says “I fear that they're being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.” pic.twitter.com/7OOH6F2Dpl
The D.C.-based news outlet, WUSA9, reported that several asylum seekers were told by Texas and Arizona officials that they would be given further transportation to their final destinations after traveling to D.C. These accounts would corroborate Bowser’s claim.
However, Ducey asserted that Arizona only provided asylum seekers with voluntary transportation to Washington, D.C. Additionally, the governor insisted that the mayor was getting a taste of her party’s own policies.
“Welcome to our world, @MayorBowser. Now work with your party, your Congress, and your President to do something about it,” stated Ducey.
Welcome to our world, @MayorBowser. Now work with your party, your Congress, and your President to do something about it. https://t.co/2I96OAFeJH
Ducey added that the only “trick” played on asylum seekers is one played by the Biden administration.
The only trick that’s being played on asylum seekers comes from the Biden Administration, which with their open border policy, has sent every possible signal to migrants to “head north.” @MurielBowserhttps://t.co/gTKHiYvvqJ
Ducey later tweeted that Bowser’s accusations were offensive to the homeless shelters and nonprofits of Arizona and other border states because they’re also overwhelmed.
.@MayorBowser's suggestion is offensive to border states whose homeless shelters and non-profit organizations are overwhelmed with the humanitarian crisis at our nation’s southern border.https://t.co/BYPxcZlgx4
In a statement to WUSA9, Ducey’s communications director, C.J. Karamargin, said that they were unaware of anyone misleading the asylum seekers.
“If anyone is being misled, we certainly want to know about it,” stated Karamargin.
Abbott spokespersons also declared to WUSA9 that they didn’t mislead the asylum seekers.
Ducey also dismissed New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ claim that Arizona sent migrant families to New York City, saying that Arizona only sent them to D.C.
“President Biden created the crisis at the border — he’s failed to respond to calls for action and refuses to even visit the border, so we’re bringing the issue a little closer to home for him,” tweeted Ducey. “The President’s policies have placed overwhelming burdens on Arizona communities. It’s convenient that these liberal mayors are finally speaking up on this humanitarian crisis once it affects their communities, even though our program does not charter to New York City.”
Mayor Adams needs to get his facts straight and pay closer attention to what’s really occurring because our nation’s security depends on it. The State of Arizona is providing voluntary transportation for asylum seekers only to Washington, D.C., not NY. 1/ https://t.co/LiVVJo7Esipic.twitter.com/AejYUEn3DG
