[FoxBusiness] A Mexican national illegal alien accused of randomly setting a New York City apartment building on fire that killed four people and injured seven others, could be released back onto the streets as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials say the city is refusing a request to turn him over to immigration authorities.
Roman Ceron Amatitla, 38, of Maspeth, is charged with eight counts of second-degree murder and first-degree arson after allegedly lighting a three-story Flushing building on fire March 16, which he had selected at random.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that on the day of the blaze, Amatitla entered and exited the Avery Avenue building multiple times, urinated in front of the apartments, and then went to a nearby gas station — where he bought a beer, stole a second one and took a pack of matches after refusing to pay for a lighter.
Authorities allege he then entered the apartment building for a fourth and final time, lighting a piece of paper on fire and tossing it onto trash near a stairwell.
As smoke engulfed the street, Katz said he stayed in the immediate area to watch people burn and jump from the windows while sipping his beer, in what she described as an "act of mass murder."
On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) requested the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC) not release Amatitla from jail.
However, because of New York’s sanctuary policies, the NYCDOC told ICE that it will refuse to cooperate.
"This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death. New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are choosing to RELEASE this MURDERER onto New York streets," DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital.
"New York’s sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety," she continued. "Releasing this monster from jail is insanity and will allow him to commit more crimes and create more innocent victims. We are calling on Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani to not release this public safety threat."
DHS claims New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's executive order shields criminal illegal immigrants and "allows them to reoffend and create more innocent victims."
Mamdani’s action came after Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s legislative proposal to bar local police departments from partnering and cooperating with ICE enforcement.
DHS said New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 illegal immigrants from Jan. 20 to Dec. 1. They are accused of crimes including: 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous drugs offenses, 300 weapons offenses and 207 sexual predatory offenses.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/17/2026 7:26 Comments ||
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#2
It's up to Congress to act. Simply giving individuals and families the right to sue said agencies who release these wanted aliens that subsequently harm our citizens. A few multimillion dollar findings and I suspect cooperation will improve.
#3
Make the people that let them go able to be criminally charged as accessories for the offender's crimes and can jail them for just as long will solve a lot of this shit.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ... as outrageous divorce papers reveal alcohol-fueled chaos he inflicted on family
A disturbing 911 call detailed the moments immediately after Virginia's former Lieutenant Governor killed his wife and himself in a murder suicide.
Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, shot his dentist spouse Cerina dead in their $1 million Annandale home in the early hours of Thursday. He then turned the gun on himself.
Their son Cameron called 911 just after midnight after he discovered his mother's blood-covered body lying on the floor, according to audio obtained by the Daily Mail.
A dispatcher detailed how the 16-year-old had said that his dad 'might have stabbed his mom'. The dispatcher said Cameron had told them that Cerina was 'lying on the ground bleeding' and he could 'see holes in her shirt.'
Cameron added that he did not know where his father was.
Cerina, 49, filed for divorce from Fairfax in July last year, alleging that he was a 'deadbeat' father and alcoholic, according to court filings obtained by the Daily Mail.
She alleged that he defaulted on the mortgage, dodged paying household bills, and even spent money earmarked for their children's horseback riding lessons on a handgun, according to the filing.
It is unclear if that gun was the weapon used in Thursday's deadly shooting.
When officers arrived on scene, they discovered Cerina unconscious and bleeding in the unfinished basement of the home.
'The husband's not gonna be here. It's gonna look like an obvious D.O.A.,' a responding medic told dispatch, adding the victim 'doesn't have a pulse.'
Fairfax, 47, was found in his bedroom with the firearm and appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Cameron and his 14-year-old sister Carys were home at the time of the murder, but unharmed. They are being tended to by relatives and victim services.
The circumstances leading up to the deadly shooting remain under investigation. Police say there is no ongoing threat to the community.
Crime scene investigators have cordoned off the residence and remain on scene as they carry out their investigation into the horrific shooting.
Officials with the Fairfax County coroner's office were seen removing bodies from the home. Autopsies will be conducted to determine the couple's exact cause of deaths.
The couple had been married for 20 years but separated in June 2024 and were in the midst of what Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis called a 'messy divorce.'
Fairfax had been drinking heavily and would lock himself in his home office, only surfacing 'long enough to get food or smoke cigarettes,' the divorce documents said.
His estranged wife described in the petition how Fairfax was living in squalor, surrounded by 'empty wine bottles, trash and piles of dirty laundry'.
In 2022, he even spent money that had been earmarked for the children's horseback riding lessons to purchase a handgun, Cerina alleged in the complaint.
She further said that Fairfax 'had chosen not to be a productive member of the family and that the dictionary definition of "deadbeat" was accurate as applied to him.'
A judge noted in the court filings that Fairfax did not dispute the claims Cerina made against him.
Fairfax was recently served paperwork indicating when he was next due to appear in court which Chief Davis said 'may have been a spark' to the deadly act of violence.
Court records show the couple were due back in court next week.
Despite their separation, the couple continued living together in the 2,000 square-foot suburban home. They were understood to have separate bedrooms, police said.
Davis said his officers responded to the home in January this year after Fairfax alleged that Cerina assaulted him inside the home.
Investigators determined that the alleged assault never occurred and no arrests were made, police said.
Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, served as Virginia's lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 under then-governor Ralph Northam.
He was the state's second most powerful lawmaker during that period.
Fairfax launched his own bid for governor in 2021, but finished fourth in the Democratic primary after his campaign was heavily overshadowed by sexual assault allegations from two women.
The Democrat adamantly denied the women's allegations and said both encounters were entirely consensual. His wife stood by his side throughout the scandal.
Cerina ran a family dentistry practice in northern Virginia. She graduated from Duke University and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, which honored her in 2015 as its most outstanding alumna of the last decade.
#2
No arrests from anyone mentioned in the Epstein Files yet.
Tulsi Gabbard is a corrupt Assad toady. Bari Weiss called her out for it. She tried to end the Syria war before it was done (it's still not done.) She's a Democrat who switched sides.
She also declared that Iran doesn't have a nuclear program. how many sides is she playing? What's above triple agent?
#3
Prove that any particular item in the Epstein files was not invented and planted by the Justice Department with malice aforethought. They held it all while the department was ruled by corrupt forgers who were proved to have created and planted documents in an attempt to destroy Donald Trump and those he wanted to work with.
#8
Run the process. Let’s see the indictments, arrests, trials and tge Clinesmith outcomes. It will be maddening, but we have to see how broken the system is. There will be the usual bozos trying to protect institutions at the expense of The Constitution. Let’s go.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/17/2026 7:24 Comments ||
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#9
Super Hose it is too broken to even start and run this.
🚨 JUST IN: The Supreme Court is reportedly about to GUT the pro-Democrat race based VRA Congressional Districts, and the decision could drop imminently
THIS WOULD BE HUGE!!
"I have been told by reliable sources that decision is DONE and the minority is SLOW-WALKING the dissent… pic.twitter.com/4SZEx0bGPp
#3
^ Huh? Prop 209 is still in effect. The Dems keep trying, but are unable to null it. Regardless, the SCOTUS will rule against them
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2026 12:22 Comments ||
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#4
The Constitution says (Section 4) TheUnited States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
Gerrymandering by either party to make them the sole party of that state at the expense of political opposition is in violation of such. 51% should not be able to disenfranchise 49%, that is unconstrained democracy not a republican form of governing.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
