The Department of Homeland Security is going public to pressure New York sanctuary officials over a man it does not want walking free.

On June 18, 2026, DHS said ICE lodged a detainer asking New York officials not to release Aureliano Antonio Melendez Reyes and instead to turn him over to federal custody.

DHS identifies Reyes as a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador. He is charged with rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child in Huntington, New York.

According to DHS, the alleged assault happened on June 6, 2026, while a 16-year-old girl was walking home.

The detail that should stop any honest official cold is this man’s immigration history.

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DHS says Reyes entered the country illegally and that a Justice Department immigration judge issued a final order of removal against him on July 10, 1998.

That order is older than the girl he is accused of attacking.

Daily Wire reporter Jennie Taer also traced the same timeline from the DHS account to the Huntington charge.

The Department of Homeland Security laid out the case and the numbers behind it.

ICE asked New York to honor the detainer and hand Reyes over instead of releasing him back onto the street. DHS framed it as a direct request to sanctuary politicians, not a quiet bureaucratic filing.

The agency tied the case to a larger pattern. It says New York’s refusal to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January 20, 2025, as of December 1, 2025.

DHS lists what those released individuals were tied to. Among them: 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous-drug offenses, 300 weapons offenses, and 207 sexual-predatory offenses.

As of December 1, 2025, DHS says 7,113 aliens in New York jurisdiction custody had active detainers. Each of those is a federal request that sanctuary policy can override.

That is the cost of the policy, spelled out in plain figures.

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Local reporting fills in the court timeline.

News12 Long Island reported that Reyes was indicted on Tuesday, June 16, in connection with the Huntington case and that prosecutors say the attack happened as the teen walked on New York Avenue.

The outlet also reported that Reyes is charged with rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child, with ICE lodging a detainer to take custody of him after the local prosecution.

News12 said he is due back in court on July 21 and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top count in Suffolk County court.

That local timeline matters because DHS is pressing New York before any custody decision can turn into another release fight.

The charges are allegations, and Reyes is entitled to his day in court like anyone else.

But the immigration math is not an allegation. A man who was ordered removed in 1998 was still in the country in 2026 to be charged at all.

Sanctuary policy is the variable that decides what happens next. Honor the detainer and ICE takes custody of a man who already exhausted his legal right to be here.

Refuse it and the decision goes back to a local jail and a release date.

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President Trump’s DHS is betting that putting the choice in public makes it harder for New York officials to quietly let go of someone they were warned about.

The girl who was walking home on June 6 did not get a say in any of this. The least the officials holding Reyes can do now is pick up the phone.

 

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