Sanctuary NYC Freed an Illegal Alien Charged With Attacking a Cop. ICE Hunted Him Down

An illegal alien from Guinea was charged with assaulting a New York City police officer with a deadly weapon on Oct. 7. The city let him go. It didn't tell ICE. On Friday afternoon, federal officers had to find him on their own.

His name is Alpha Bah. ICE officers arrested him at about 3:25 p.m. Friday outside a temporary residence in the city, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News Digital, which first reported the capture. ICE confirmed it that evening on 𝕏: "Sanctuary NYC released Bah TWICE despite ICE detainers, but ERO officers tracked him down through intelligence gathering and surveillance and arrested him without incident."

Three arrests, three walkouts

Bah's record, as laid out in the DHS release of Oct. 28 and ICE's own statement, reads like a revolving door:

- November 2023: He crosses the border illegally in Arizona. Border Patrol arrests him, and the Biden administration releases him into the country. - Jan. 5, 2025: The NYPD arrests him for criminal trespass. He's out before ICE can even lodge a detainer. - June 15, 2026: Arrested again, charged with intent to obtain transportation without paying. ICE lodges a detainer at Manhattan Central Booking. The NYPD releases him anyway. - Oct. 7, 2026: Arrested on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and, again, intent to obtain transportation without paying. ICE lodges a detainer at Queens Central Booking. DHS says the NYPD released him "without notifying ICE."

Three weeks after that last release, DHS and ICE went public. ICE posted a WANTED notice with his face and a tip line, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin aimed straight at the people in charge.

"This is the vision of sanctuary politicians in a nutshell: the open-border policies of the Biden Administration let this criminal into our country, and then sanctuary politicians in New York released him after arresting him without notifying ICE," Mullin said. "DHS is calling on Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to knock it off with these evil sanctuary policies before another American gets hurt, or worse."

The rule that let him walk

Most coverage stops at "sanctuary city." Here's what that means in practice. An ICE detainer is a request: hold this person a short while, or at least tell us before you release him, so we can pick him up at the jail door.

New York City's own law, Administrative Code § 14-154, says the NYPD may honor a detainer, even just by notifying ICE of a release, only if two things are both true. ICE must hand over a warrant signed by a federal judge, not ICE's own administrative warrant. And a records search must show the person has been *convicted* of a violent or serious crime, or is a possible match on the terrorist watch list.

Being charged with attacking a cop isn't a conviction. So under the city's rules, a man arrested on Oct. 7 for assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon could not even trigger a phone call to ICE. Neither federal release includes a response from the city explaining the decision.

Think of it like a bouncer told by the police to keep a troublemaker at the door until officers arrive, who lets him out the back instead and says nothing.

Why ICE says that's dangerous

Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella said the city had "multiple opportunities to turn this illegal alien over to federal custody — and multiple times, our requests went unanswered."

"When local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, they force our officers to make arrests in communities rather than safe, controlled settings, creating unnecessary risks for everyone involved," he said.

Friday's arrest showed exactly what he meant. According to the DHS official's account to Fox News Digital, officers spotted a man matching Bah's description at about 2:22 p.m., meeting several people on a public street. School-aged children were nearby, so the officers held back and kept watching. About an hour later they caught him alone, showed police and ICE identification, confirmed who he was with biographical questions, a photo and Mobile Fortify, a biometric ID tool, and served him an administrative immigration arrest warrant. He went quietly and was taken to 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan for processing.

A transfer at Queens Central Booking would have taken minutes, behind locked doors. Instead it took three weeks of a man charged with attacking a police officer loose on the streets, then a stakeout near children.

What happens next

Bah is now in ICE custody and faces removal proceedings as an illegal alien. The Oct. 7 charges in Queens are a separate state case, and the federal releases don't say where it stands.

The fight over who controls the jailhouse door isn't going away. Mamdani and Hochul run the city and state that wrote these rules. Mullin's DHS keeps naming the cases they produce, one face at a time. This time, ICE got its man. The question New Yorkers should be asking City Hall is why it had to hunt for him at all.