Federal ICE agents were left fuming after an alleged sexual predator and repeat offender, Gerardo Miguel Mora, was allowed to slip out the back door of a Manhattan courthouse — despite a federal arrest warrant being on file.
Mora, 45, was arrested Thursday for shoplifting $130 in items from an H&M in Midtown, but he has a long criminal history, including a 2011 arrest for attempted rape and strangulation. Police say Mora followed a 21-year-old woman home, choked her, and attempted to remove her clothes before being stopped by a bystander. He was presumably deported afterward, only to return to the U.S. in 2023 and get arrested for using a false ID.
ICE had issued a criminal arrest warrant for Mora under the “reentry of removed aliens” statute. All the necessary paperwork was delivered to the courthouse for the judge’s review, sources said. Yet Democrat Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne, elected in a special Brooklyn election last year, reportedly allowed Mora to leave the courthouse without notifying ICE, letting him evade federal custody temporarily.
Federal agents realized Mora had been released and gave chase outside, eventually taking him into federal custody. He now faces potential prosecution and deportation.
This incident highlights the friction between federal immigration enforcement and sanctuary city policies. New York City’s refusal to cooperate with ICE can put dangerous criminals back on the streets, frustrating both federal agents and local law enforcement. A veteran NYPD officer summed it up bluntly: “They came into the country the wrong way and they committed a crime. They should be deported. We should be able to hand them over to the feds.”
This isn’t an isolated issue. Sources say federal warrants for other criminal migrants have also gone unenforced, and federal authorities have previously pursued judges they believe obstruct ICE operations. Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan, for instance, faces up to five years in prison after a felony obstruction conviction for helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE.
In Mora’s case, federal law enforcement ensured he was eventually taken into custody, but the episode underscores the risks of sanctuary policies when criminals slip through local protections and endanger communities.
