Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday stepped up her call for the migrants caught-on-camera ganging up on two NYPD officers near Times Square to get booted from the US — as cops continued to search for at least one suspect.
“Get them all and send them back,” Hochul told reporters during an unrelated press conference announcing the rollout of new open gangway subway cars.
“You don’t touch our police officers. You don’t touch anyone,” she said.
The remarks upped the Democratic governor’s comments on Wednesday that deporting the migrants arrested in the shocking mob beatdown on New York’s Finest is something that should be “looked at.”
Police late Wednesday arrested two more asylum-seekers — Jandry Barros, 21 and Yohenry Brito, 24 — and charged them with robbery and felony assault over the Saturday night attack. They were awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Five other migrants were previously arrested — Darwin Andres Gomez-Izqhiel, 19; Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19; Wilson Juarez, 21; Jhoan Boada, 22, and Yorman Reveron, 24 — and then released without bail on charges of second-degree assault on police officers and obstructing government administration.
All were Venezuelans who arrived in the five boroughs sometime last year, according to law enforcement sources.
Police sources said that at least one more suspect remains the subject of an NYPD manhunt.
The assault came around 8:30 p.m. Saturday when Lt. Ben Kurian and Police Officer Tian Zunxu tried to break up a disorderly group outside a shelter on West 42nd Street when a scuffle broke out.
Kurian and Zunxu wrestled one of the migrants to the ground as the others took turns kicking the two cops before the gang ran off — with the first four arrested nearby and the rest in the subsequent days.
Both cops suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.
In a press briefing Wednesday, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell slammed the decision to release all of the accused cop-beaters to walk free without bail after the attacks, calling them “cowards.”
“Reprehensible,” the chief said. “You want to know why our cops are getting assaulted? There are no consequences. Eight people attacked two cops. Cowards.”
A smug Boada raised eyebrows after his arraignment Wednesday when he gave reporters two middle fingers as he left the Manhattan courthouse without bail.
More than 170,000 asylum seekers from the US border with Mexico have flocked to New York City since the spring of 2022, with more than 65,000 still housed in city shelters and hotels.