FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) blasted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over “sanctuary” policies, demanding the two honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for an illegal migrant convicted of raping a corpse.
Felix Jeronimo-Rojas, 44, was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting and raiding the pockets of 37-year-old Jorge Gonzalez while he sat dead on the R train near Lower Manhattan’s Whitehall Street station, according to the New York Post.
The Mexican national pled guilty to the charges.
“This sicko robbed and raped the corpse of a dead man on a New York City subway,” said Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS. “ICE lodged a detainer asking Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien after his prison sentence. We need cooperation from sanctuary politicians to ensure depraved criminals like this are not released into our communities.”
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On April 8, 2025, Gonzalez boarded the train at around 7:52 p.m., according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Authorities said he stayed in the same spot for several hours before losing consciousness at around 10:48 p.m. Jeronimo-Rojas got on the train several minutes later and at 11:45 p.m., he began violating Gonzalez while he was unresponsive, prosecutors said.
DHS lodged an immigration detainer for Jeronimo-Rojas on April 30, 2025, the agency exclusively told Fox News Digital. The department is continuing to demand that this detainer is honored by New York state and city officials at the conclusion of his sentence.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Hochul and Mamdani for additional comment.
Hochul oversees state laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, while Mamdani is responsible for how city agencies, including the New York Police Department and the Department of Correction, implement the city’s sanctuary policies.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, DHS said New York state released 6,947 illegal immigrants that were convicted of crimes last year between Jan. 20 and Dec. 1.
Jeronimo-Rojas has illegally entered the United States four times between 1998 and 1999, according to DHS. Each time, he voluntarily returned to Mexico after encounters with U.S. Border Patrol.
Jeronimo-Rojas then re-entered the country “for FIFTH time at an unknown date and location,” DHS said.
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Roughly three weeks after committing the crime, Jeronimo-Rojas turned himself in to the NYPD. Per the New York Post, Jeronimo-Rojas acknowledged he was caught on surveillance footage but denied the rape and the robbery.
Jeronimo-Rojas did not speak at his sentencing hearing and took a plea deal that will include 15 years of supervised release after his initial five-year prison sentence.
Gonzalez, his victim, came to the U.S. about 20 years ago to work and support his loved ones in Mexico, his family told the New York Post.
“He wasn’t just a random person, he was a father, he was a family man, he cared about his family in Mexico,” his 38-year-old wife Teresa told the outlet.
“He did construction, he worked in kitchens, he worked as a waiter, he was a busboy. You know, anything you really could do to try to get ahead,” said Teresa, who was separated from him for six years.
