‘The Post was right’ about accused cop-shooting migrant’s troubling backstory: Mayor Adams
Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that “The Post was right’’ when it exposed the Biden administration’s botched “mass amnesty’’ program for migrants like the teen now suspected of shooting two city cops.
Adams cited The Post’s exclusive reporting at a press conference when talking about Bernardo Castro Mata, the 19-year-old Venezuelan who crossed into the US illegally in Texas in July 2023 and ended up allegedly shooting the Finest in Queens on Monday.
Mata’s asylum case had been dismissed by a Chicago court about two weeks ago as part of the Biden administration’s alleged attempt to deal with the staggering legal backlog it created with its free-for-all border policy.
The move means Mata — suspected of being a relatively new member of the ruthless Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela, according to law-enforcement sources — was neither denied nor granted asylum but still legally free to roam around the US without being tracked anymore.
At the time, he had no known criminal ties, allowing his asylum case to be closed.
Cops say that in addition to the cops’ shooting, Mata is now a person of interest in two violent moped snatch-and-grab robberies targeting women in Queen on May 21, about two weeks after his asylum case was dismissed.
“The Post was right, The Post was right,’’ Adams said, referring to Mata’s case-dismissal reporting.
Hizzoner then went on to suggest that the system also failed Mata.
When the migrant’s asylum case was closed, it also meant he couldn’t get benefits or a work permit, among other things, in the US.
“I saw an officer sitting there with a bullet through his leg from a person who … came into our country. … We are paying his food, his housing,’’ Adams said.
After Mata’s asylum case was closed, “He can’t work. he can’t go to school. So what happens? You have to really think about what I’m going to say, what’s being created in this amazing city,” the mayor said.
“We have to be honest about this, and everyone wants to romanticize this issue and just act like, ‘Oh, it’s no big thing.’ No, no, this is a serious issue this administration is attempting to resolve,’’ he said.
Adams has supported the Big Apple’s self-designation as a “Sanctuary City’’ under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Such cities, usually Democrat-led, limit local authorities’ cooperation with federal law-enforcement, including when it comes to reporting the immigration status of people involved in minor crimes.
