Federal immigration agents took custody of a 38-year-old Ecuadorian national three days after he allegedly led a 4-year-old girl out the back door of a Patchogue laundromat, and one day after a local judge freed him on supervised release without bail. The Department of Homeland Security revealed the rearrest Monday, calling it a direct consequence of sanctuary policies that put a child's alleged kidnapper back on the street.
Carlos Corte-Corte now faces removal proceedings after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him on March 31, the New York Post reported. DHS said he had already been deported three times, all in 2020, and illegally re-entered the United States a fourth time at an unknown date and location before the alleged incident.
The sequence of events tells a story that has become grimly familiar. A man who should never have been in the country was charged with a serious crime against a child, released by the courts, and had to be picked up again by federal agents who say local officials refused to cooperate.
Suffolk County Police said Corte-Corte allegedly approached a 4-year-old girl inside Laundry Kingdom in Patchogue on March 28 while her mother was present. Security footage reportedly showed him speaking with the child for several minutes before leading her out of the laundromat, a prior New York Post report detailed. The girl's mother caught up with him at a nearby library.
Police found the child in the children's play area of the Patchogue-Medford Library. She was safe.
Suffolk County officers arrested Corte-Corte on charges of second-degree kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child, and on an outstanding warrant. The nature of that warrant was not specified.
What happened next is where the case turns from alarming to infuriating. The following day, Suffolk County District Judge James F. Leonick freed Corte-Corte on supervised release with a GPS monitor, no bail required. A man charged with snatching a 4-year-old walked out of jail.
Corte-Corte's public defender, Suffolk County legal aid attorney Alexandra Dyroff, argued in court that the entire episode was a misunderstanding caused by a language barrier. She offered an explanation that strained credulity.
Dyroff told the court:
"He thought the girl lived alone without parents. He took her to the library and told an employee there as such, but there was a language barrier. It seems to be a mistake."
Prosecutors painted a different picture. Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Evan Ryan said Corte-Corte himself admitted wrongdoing, stating: "I made a mistake when I took the girl." That admission, relayed by prosecutors, undercuts the defense framing that no intentional act occurred.
The claim that a grown man believed a 4-year-old was living alone, in a laundromat, with her mother present, and decided the proper course was to walk her out the back door to a library deserves the skepticism it has received. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney made clear he disagreed with the judge's decision to release Corte-Corte.
Tierney told the Post:
"I think if you look at the facts of the case, clearly they're concerning."
That is a restrained way to describe a three-time deportee charged with kidnapping a small child being released without bail. The pattern of crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants who evade removal, including a recent kidnapping and rape conviction in San Francisco, makes the judge's decision all the harder to justify.
DHS did not mince words. The department said "sanctuary politicians released him from jail back into the community" and framed the case as a direct illustration of the human cost of non-cooperation policies.
Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis issued a statement to the Post that laid the blame squarely on local officials:
"This three-time deported criminal illegal alien, Carlos Corte-Corte, kidnapped an innocent four-year-old girl from a laundromat on Long Island. New York sanctuary politicians chose to release this kidnapper from jail to prey on more innocent children rather than cooperate with ICE law enforcement."
Bis added that "sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety" and that "this type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims." She concluded: "Thanks to our ICE law enforcement, this sicko is off our streets."
The language is blunt, but the underlying point is hard to argue with. A man deported three times in a single year managed to re-enter the country, was charged with kidnapping a child, and was released by a judge rather than held for federal immigration authorities. ICE had to go find him again.
DHS said Corte-Corte illegally entered the United States at least three times in 2020 and was removed each time. He then re-entered a fourth time at an unknown place and date before the March 28 incident. Fox News confirmed the same deportation history, citing DHS.
That record alone raises serious questions about border security during 2020 and the years that followed. Three removals in a single calendar year, followed by a successful fourth illegal entry, suggests either a revolving door at the border or a failure of consequence severe enough to make re-entry a manageable risk.
The case fits a broader pattern that has drawn national attention. DHS has repeatedly condemned sanctuary jurisdictions for releasing individuals with active immigration detainers, including in a case in Santa Clara County where a mother was allegedly killed by two Honduran nationals who had been shielded from ICE.
Judge Leonick's decision to release Corte-Corte without bail on supervised release with a GPS monitor deserves scrutiny. The charges were not minor. Second-degree kidnapping is a serious felony. The defendant was a foreign national with no apparent legal status, three prior deportations, and an outstanding warrant. Flight risk does not get much more obvious than that.
New York's bail reform laws have drawn sustained criticism for limiting judicial discretion on pretrial detention, though the specific legal basis for Leonick's decision was not detailed. What is clear is the result: a man accused of taking a 4-year-old from her mother walked free, and federal agents had to clean up the mess.
The disconnect between local courts and federal immigration enforcement has produced a growing catalog of preventable tragedies. The murder charge filed against an illegal immigrant in the death of Loyola freshman Sheridan Gorman stands as one of the most devastating recent examples.
District Attorney Tierney's public disagreement with the judge signals that even within Suffolk County's own law enforcement apparatus, the release was seen as wrong. When the local prosecutor says the facts are "clearly concerning" and the judge lets the defendant walk anyway, the system is not functioning as designed.
ICE's detention of Corte-Corte on March 31, just days after the alleged kidnapping, means federal agents moved quickly once local authorities failed to hold him. He is now in removal proceedings. But the broader question remains: how many times can one person be deported and return before the system treats the pattern as something other than a paperwork exercise?
Several facts remain unclear. The nature of the outstanding warrant against Corte-Corte has not been disclosed. The exact date and location of his fourth illegal entry are unknown. And no explanation has been offered for how a man removed three times in 2020 managed to re-enter and remain in the country long enough to be living on Long Island years later.
The political debate over sanctuary policies and local resistance to ICE enforcement will continue. But this case strips the abstraction away. A 4-year-old girl was led out of a laundromat by a man who had been deported three times. A judge let him go. ICE had to come get him.
When the system works this hard to avoid holding people accountable, the people who pay the price are always the ones with the least power to protect themselves.
