THE GRANDDAUGHTER of a 92-year-old woman who police say was raped and killed by an illegal immigrant has slammed New York’s “sanctuary city” policy.
Daria Ortiz, 19, was invited to speak by President Donald Trump during a border security event at the White House on Friday.
“Unfortunately, my grandmother had to be [an] example of why something like this, [these] horrific crimes should never happen,” she said, telling the audience her grandma, Maria Fuertes, legally immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic.
“The tragedy is that this could have been avoided had there been no sanctuary law,” she said. “The system not only failed our family, but they failed our city.”
“The tragedy is my grandmother is not ever going to be here again.”
Ortiz said Fuertes was a “shining example of when people come legally to this country, work hard and do the right thing and are law-abiding citizens.”
Fuertes was murdered near her home in Queens, a borough of New York City, on January 6, according to police.
Cops say surveillance video shows Reeaz Khan following the victim, knocking her to the ground and sexually assaulting her before running from the scene.
A passerby called 911 and Fuertes was taken to a hospital, where she died of her injuries.
Khan, who is being held at Rikers Island prison without bond, is a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Guyana. He was charged with murder on January 10.
Trump said at the event he “asked for the criminal to be taken in” after earlier busts, “but he was released under New York sanctuary laws.”
Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued four “immigration subpoenas” to New York City for information about inmates who are wanted for deportation, including Khan.
Henry Lucero, a senior ICE official, said: “This is a last resort for us. Dangerous criminals are being released every single day in New York.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration said they’d review the subpoenas, but his spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said: “New York City will not change the policies that have made us the safest big city in America.”
The subpoena about Khan asks for information about the Guyanese man, who ICE officials say had been released from custody after an earlier assault charge rather than turned over to be deported.
New York City police said last month they didn’t receive a retainer about Khan, but ICE insists it was sent.
Regardless, the city wouldn’t have turned Khan over under the terms of New York’s local ordinance abotu governing how police work with immigration officials.
Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence said before the subpoenas were issued: “It is this city’s sanctuary policies that are the sole reason this criminal was allowed to roam the streets freely and end an innocent woman’s life.”
De Blasio’s spokesperson said “the Trump administration’s attempt to exploit this tragedy are absolutely shameful.”
The Trump administration is planning to deploy officers to a number of cities to boost illegal immigration arrests.
Members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit will be deployed to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Newark and Detroit, among other cities.
The move to target certain cities comes as the Justice Department on Monday filed two new lawsuits against New Jersey and King County in Washington state over their “sanctuary policies.”
Some cities, like New York, have put laws in place that prohibit sharing information about inmates who are illegally in the U.S. with immigration officials.
“These policies are textbook examples of misguided ideology triumphing over commonsense law enforcement, and it is the public and the police who pay the price,” Attorney General William Barr said.
The tactical unit deployment will run from February through May, according to The New York Times.
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