# ICE Takes Fox News Along on Brooklyn Arrests as Its New York Enforcement Chief Blames Mamdani, Hochul and the City Council for Sanctuary Policies

Fox News Digital rode with ICE's top New York City enforcement official on two early-morning arrests. Ken Genalo says the city ignored requests to hand both men over from local custody. The charges against one man are still pending, and ICE's account is the main source.

- Section: [Border & Security](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/border-security/)
- Published: 2026-11-06
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/ice-brooklyn-raids-ride-along-genalo-sanctuary-laws-mamdani-hochul-city-council-tkeshelashvili-augustine-detainers-fox-news/

Fox News Digital went out with ICE agents in Brooklyn last Thursday and reports that the agency's top New York City enforcement official says arrests like these would be unneeded if the city handed over people held in local jails.

Who spoke. Ken Genalo runs ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York City. He told Fox the fight is "100% all of this is about politics. It is not about public safety." He blamed Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the City Council for sanctuary policies that make agents track suspects on the street.

The first arrest. Agents watched Nika Tkeshelashvili, 40, a Georgian national. ICE says he entered illegally through the southern border in January 2023 and was arrested in September on a first-degree sexual abuse charge. That charge is still pending. His next immigration court date was October 2028. Agents expected him to come out around 7 a.m. to move his car, and they took him at about 7:57 a.m. Genalo called it "textbook."

The second arrest. Yves Frantz Augustine, 45, a Haitian national. ICE says he came legally in 1997, overstayed, and was ordered deported in 2006. His record, per ICE, includes seven years in prison for assault, weapons offenses and a terroristic threat case. Genalo says an attempt to deport him in 2011 failed because Haiti would not issue travel papers, and that New York authorities refused three detainer requests. Agents waited until he dropped a child at school. He resisted for about four minutes, and Fox's footage shows him pleading for his children and claiming to be a citizen. Genalo cited the 2006 order to dispute that.

The complaints. Genalo says both men had been in local custody. He said agitators blew whistles and shouted warnings during a separate operation to arrest an Ecuadorian man facing child sexual misconduct charges. He said ICE once had a unit at Rikers Island and took more than 100 people a week from the jail, and blamed Bill de Blasio for ending that. He challenged city leaders to let voters decide on cooperation. Fox notes a bipartisan push for a public vote in 2024 and 2025 went nowhere. Genalo also said he would meet with Mamdani: "We have the same job to do."

The backdrop. The ride-along came less than a week after Mamdani posted a Spanish-language video on how to respond to ICE agents, following the shooting of a Dominican man whom authorities say tried to ram officers. ICE arrested nearly 2,200 people in a statewide push in August called Operation Rotten Apple. Mamdani has called for ICE to be abolished. We ran his own account this week: see our video report on his "Morning Joe" interview.

Why it matters here. Anti-ICE politicians say the election backed their approach. This is the agency's reply, from the official who runs the local operation. It is his view, and Fox reported while embedded with ICE agents.

What we could not check. We did not see the ICE records, detainer requests or court files. Criminal histories and immigration status come from ICE and Genalo. Tkeshelashvili's charge is an allegation. We saw no response from the mayor, governor or City Council in the part we read.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/inside-ice-high-stakes-raids-targeting-illegal-migrants-nyc-chief-rips-sanctuary-laws)