NYPD Union Rep Links De Blasio’s Sanctuary Policies to Rape of 97-Year-Old New Yorker: ‘He Owns It’

The vice president for the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association slammed New York mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday for instituting sanctuary city polices despite the fact that “every single one” of the union’s approximately 13,000 members wanted to help ICE take criminals off the street.

SBA vice president Vincent Vallelong delivered the message during a Friday press conference on the city’s failure to prevent the death of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes earlier this month.

“I can guarantee you every single one of our members wants to help them out. Unfortunately, the way the policies are set up, they don’t allow us to,” Vallelong said while standing beside acting ICE director Matthew Albence. “It’s another law enforcement group — how do we have our own hands handcuffed to not be able to work with these guys? We’re here not to go pick and choose what crimes are out there, we’re here to actually enforce the law, and that’s exactly what these guys are doing, and that’s why we’re here to support them today.”

Vallelong also challenged de Blasio to “step up” and defend his sanctuary policies, saying that ICE’s efforts would “absolutely” impact crime. Albence said in the press conference that the city has refused 7,526 of ICE’s detainer requests, a much higher figure than the city’s reported number of 2,916.

“The mayor can say what he wants to say, he owns this, and that’s right,” Vallelong said. “He should step up and say that these are his policies, that he owns it.”

The dispute between ICE and the mayor’s office, which has instituted a directive from de Blasio to not comply with ICE’s attempts to enforce immigration law, came to a head earlier this month with the case of Fuertes, who was raped and murdered on the street outside of her home by Reeaz Khan, a 21-year-old Guyanese national.