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The Guatemalan citizen charged Monday in the fiery death of a woman on the
F train in Brooklyn had been deported by the United States six years ago,
only to reenter the country at a later date, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency official said.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who was removed by ICE to Guatemala on June 7, 2018, reentered the U.S. on an unknown date and location, and subsequently made
his way to New York City, Jeff Carter, a spokesman for ICE, said in a statement.

Zapeta now faces charges of murder in the first and second degrees, as
well as arson, in a case that focuses renewed attention on safety in the subway, illegal immigration and outreach to those in distress in the
subway system.

The woman killed in the attack has not yet been identified. NYPD officials
said they were still trying to determine if she was sleeping in the subway
and if she was homeless.

Authorities said a man set a woman on fire around 7:30 a.m. Sunday at the Stillwell Avenue station. The attacker allegedly ignited her clothing with
a lighter, and the flames spread quickly through the subway car. Despite efforts by officers and an MTA employee to extinguish the fire, the woman
was pronounced dead at the scene.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said three “high-school-aged” students recognized the man from photos police released in the hours following the attack, leading to the arrest. Authorities said Zapeta possessed a lighter
when he was taken into custody.

Little is known about Zapeta’s time in New York, but a spokesperson for
Mayor Eric Adams said Zapeta arrived prior to the influx of immigrants
that began in the spring of 2022, and that he’d been in and out of city-
run shelters during that time.

"Yes, this is a country of immigrants. It's a country of those who want to
seek to pursue the American dream. But those who violate that pursuit, we
need to immediately remove them from our country," Adams said on Fox 5
Monday night. "After they served their time, I don't want to turn them
back into a country just to have them sneak back in and the family members
are not receiving justice for what happened."

According to authorities, Zapeta’s last known address was on Forbell
Avenue in East New York, a location associated with a substance abuse
treatment facility.

In light of reports that the accused had no serious criminal contact with police prior to Sunday’s violence, it’s unlikely he would have landed
sooner on the radar of federal immigration enforcement officials.

New York’s so-called “sanctuary city” protections for immigrants lacking
legal status largely bar local government officials from sharing
information or otherwise cooperating with ICE officials, unless a serious violent crime is involved, a warrant has been secured, and only post- conviction.

Carter, the ICE spokesman, said federal enforcement and removal officers
will lodge an immigration detainer request with the city seeking custody
of Zapeta.

“They're telling them that once this person goes through your criminal
justice process and is sentenced, we are then interested, please hand him
over to us,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow and director of the Migration Policy Institute office at New York University School of Law.

“This is such a clear case that there is no doubt that he will be handed
over,” Chishti said. “This is not a gray area.”

But, he said, that would almost certainly only happen following a
conviction.

"Unless the federal government is interested in just deporting people who haven't even been convicted,” Chishti said. “Which would be extremely
unusual.”

Chishti noted that the issue of crime by undocumented immigrants has
played into local and national debates on immigration, notwithstanding
evidence that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than native-
born residents.

But Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a longtime community activist
and Republican candidate for mayor, who has previously criticized the
city’s sanctuary protections and Adams’ handling of the migrant crisis,
and who has frequently linked illegal immigration with criminality,
downplayed any link between the two in Sunday’s violence.

The issue, he said, was inadequate health care.

“Whether he should have been [in the U.S.] or shouldn't have been here,
when you light somebody on fire, and you watch like a pyromaniac as they
burn, and you seem to get a vicarious thrill, you're an emotionally
disturbed person,” Sliwa said.

He added, “The subways are filled with emotionally disturbed persons who
need to get mental health care.

This story has been updated with new comments from Mayor Eric Adams.

https://gothamist.com/news/suspect-in-subway-fire-death-was-deported-6- years-ago-only-to-find-his-way-to-nyc

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