Overview
- Homeland Security officials said New York City declined an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request to hold Roman Ceron Amatitla, who is charged in the March 16 Flushing fire that killed four people and injured seven.
- New York City’s Department of Correction said Amatitla remains in custody on Rikers Island after a no-bail arraignment and is due back in court on May 12.
- An ICE detainer is a request to a local jail to hold a person or to notify ICE before release, which New York limits under Administrative Code §9-131 unless ICE presents warrant forms I-200 or I-205 and the person has a qualifying recent conviction.
- DHS used the case to attack New York’s “sanctuary” policies and released figures claiming thousands of noncitizens were freed after detainers were not honored, while some local law enforcement sources called the DHS statement a publicity move.
- Prosecutors say Amatitla picked the building at random and set a stairwell fire, with a 3-year-old among the dead, in a case now doubling as a test of how the city balances local law with federal immigration demands.