Federal agents swept up nearly 2,200 illegal immigrants with criminal records across New York State in a single month, and Homeland Security says the operation succeeded despite open obstruction from the state's top elected officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the results of "Operation Rotten Apple" on Tuesday, detailing an ICE enforcement campaign that ran from July 27 through August 29 across New York State. The operation netted 2,197 arrests. Among those taken into custody: convicted murderers, rapists, gang members, and individuals with records of sexual crimes against children.
Mullin made clear the arrests happened without any cooperation from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani or Governor Kathy Hochul, both of whom have spent the better part of 2026 building a legal wall between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents. The secretary framed the operation as a direct response to sanctuary policies he said have put New Yorkers at risk.
Federal officials named four individuals whose criminal histories illustrate the scope of what ICE encountered on New York's streets. Bogdan Detrovich Gren, a Ukrainian national in the country illegally, carried convictions for murder, kidnapping, abduction resulting in death, and criminal possession of a weapon, DHS reported.
Palvinder Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, had been convicted of rape in Germany. Carlos Mendez-Acosta, a Venezuelan migrant, also carried a rape conviction. Andreas Bernal Chiquito, an illegal immigrant from Colombia, had past arrests for sexual conduct against a child and injuring a child under age 17. DHS did not specify whether Chiquito's arrests resulted in convictions.
Mullin did not hold back at the press conference:
"These arrests included gang members, rapists, murderers and child predators, which I believe there is a special place in h*** for those individuals."
DHS also claimed that New York's sanctuary policies have resulted in more than 13,000 criminal aliens being released back onto the state's streets. The department did not specify the time period or methodology behind that figure.
The political backdrop is what gives Operation Rotten Apple its edge, and its name. Shortly after taking office in January, Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order reinforcing sanctuary protections and severely limiting local agencies from working with ICE. He characterized federal immigration enforcement as "abusive."
Mamdani went further. He signed additional legislation barring ICE from operating out of Rikers Island or any other New York City correctional facility. Separate measures made it harder for federal authorities to monitor gang activity, including the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, inside city jails.
Governor Hochul matched the mayor's posture at the state level. In May, Albany legislators passed Hochul-backed legislation preventing state police from partnering with federal immigration authorities and barring ICE agents from most public places, including hospitals and parks. By late August, New York sheriffs had filed suit challenging the law as it took effect.
Mullin responded to the obstruction with a blunt promise. Asked whether the federal government would send more agents to New York, he answered with one word: "Absolutely."
"Because they refused to work with us... we will send as many people as we have possible to make sure we are restoring law and order."
The secretary went beyond enforcement and into fiscal pressure. Mullin said he does not believe the federal government should send any money to sanctuary states or cities, and that President Trump is actively exploring options to withhold funding.
"I don't think we should be sending one federal penny to sanctuary states and sanctuary cities. And I know President Trump is looking at options there. In my opinion, I don't think taxpayer dollars from the great people of Oklahoma or any other red state should be funding a state that embraces these criminals like New York."
He directed specific criticism at Mamdani, saying the mayor "is extremely out of touch with what the American people want and what public safety actually looks like." Mullin added that the 2,197 individuals arrested were people "we took off the streets of New York to protect the people here because you have a mayor here that refuses to work."
Border czar Tom Homan echoed the charge. In a separate statement, Homan drew a direct line between sanctuary rhetoric and public safety consequences:
"Democratic politicians in New York and elsewhere say that they care about public safety, but won't let immigration law enforcement officers into their jails to take criminals into custody; instead they release them to their streets."
Mullin framed the operation as proof that the Trump administration's enforcement agenda will proceed regardless of local resistance. In remarks reported separately, the secretary said those arrested "should never have been on our streets, but while the radical left sanctuary states protect illegals, underneath Trump's administration and the Department of Homeland Security, ICE officers... are out there every day protecting Americans."
Several questions remain unanswered. DHS has not said whether the 2,197 arrested individuals face federal criminal charges or are being processed solely for deportation. The department has not detailed its methodology for the 13,000-criminal-alien figure. And the specific "options" President Trump is considering for withholding federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions have not been made public.
The timeline tells its own story. In January, Mamdani signed orders and legislation shielding illegal immigrants, including those in city jails, from federal agents. In May, Hochul pushed state-level protections even further. By summer, ICE had to conduct a month-long operation with no local help to pull convicted murderers, rapists, and child sex offenders off New York streets. And by late August, the state's own sheriffs were suing to challenge the sanctuary law.
Mullin stated plainly what the operation demonstrated: New York's elected leaders chose to protect illegal immigrants with criminal records from federal law enforcement, and the federal government had to step in and do the job itself.
When the people charged with keeping a city safe spend their energy making it harder to remove convicted killers and rapists, they have made their priorities clear. So has the federal government, and it is sending more agents.
