Venezuelan migrant Bernardo Castro Mata, 19, accused of shooting two NYPD officers, had his immigration case dismissed less than a year after illegally crossing into the US.
Mata, who shot one officer in the chest and another in the leg after they attempted to stop his moped in Queens, had a hearing in Chicago on May 6 where an immigration judge closed his case, according to ICE sources. This information emerged just after The Post revealed the Biden administration’s dismissal of asylum cases and deportation orders for 350,000 migrants without criminal records.
“The Biden administration allows foreigners to violate our immigration laws at every possible opportunity, with no finality, no real resolution of their cases,” former ICE chief of staff Jon Feere, now with the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Post.
Mata crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, where he was arrested but released in July 2023. He failed to provide an address, leading to his immigration court case in Chicago. The sweeping dismissal of cases by the Biden administration removes such migrants from “removal proceedings,” meaning they are no longer being deported. They can’t apply for benefits or work permits but can reapply for asylum or seek legal status.
President Joe Biden plans to issue an executive order to close the southern border once daily crossings reach 2,500 to 4,000. However, federal authorities recorded an average of 5,990 daily crossings in April.
Feere criticized the administration’s policies, claiming they don’t care about the fallout from their open border policies and that they legitimize chaos through executive orders. Mata is also suspected of attacking two women in snatch-and-grab robberies days before the police shooting.
“The patterns we’re looking at in Queens involve phone snatches and an instance where a woman was attacked, her credit card stolen and used in a Queens smoke shop,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
