Blames Hochul’s Support of Sanctuary Policies for Incidents
By Hank Russell
Following the news that an illegal immigrant was arrested for allegedly stabbing two women to death, Nassau County Executive and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman blasted the sanctuary state policies supported by Governor Kathy Hochul and said this crime could have been prevented, if not for these policies.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Rony Yahir Alvarenga Rivera, 22, of Valley Stream, was arrested on May 1 for allegedly stabbing two women to death. The first victim was fatally stabbed outside a Wendy’s in North Long Beach and the second victim was pronounced dead inside a Valley Stream residence which she shared with the suspect. Nassau County police identified the victims as Ana Maria Del Aguila Cordova, 42, of Long Beach and Eddy Raquel Hernandez Castillo, 32, of Valley Stream.
According to Blakeman, Alvarenga Rivera came into the U.S. illegally in 2016, reportedly from El Salvador, during the Obama administration. “This individual … came into this country in 2016 under the Obama administration as a 12-year-old, went before an immigration judge, and that judge released this 12-year-old unsupervised here in America,” he said during a May 4 appearance on the Newsmax show National Report. “Think about it. Who lets a 12-year-old run loose unsupervised — we don’t know where this individual came from — and then give him legal status in our country? It’s absolutely bizarre.”
When one of the hosts mentioned this was part of Obama’s Dream Act — which gave temporary conditional residency to minors who came to this country illegally — Blakeman replied, “It’s not a dream; it’s a nightmare.”
He also said that the suspect later obtained a green card in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden. “So, he was actually here legally,” Blakeman said.
Blakeman said these murders occurred because of sanctuary state policies that, he said, Hochul doubled down on, as well as the “failed” immigration policies of the Biden administration. “As a result, we have two beautiful women who, at the very early stages of their [lives], have been killed by the defendant, allegedly. And this individual should never have been in America,” Blakeman said, adding that he will repeal sanctuary state policies if elected governor.
LILP reached out to the Hochul campaign, which referred this reporter to the New York State Democratic Party.
“Violent crime in Nassau County spiked to its highest level in a decade on Bruce Blakeman’s watch because he cares more about protecting Donald Trump than New Yorkers,” said party spokesperson Addison Dick. “Blakeman is making New York less safe by enabling Trump’s rogue ICE agents as they go after hardworking New Yorkers instead of criminals and creating his own armed MAGA militia that undermines law enforcement.”