A shooting in Times Square. Police officers jumped in Midtown. Moped-riding thieves snatching purses in Brooklyn. An immigrant crime wave has exploded in recent weeks across deportation-free New York City, a “sanctuary city” that has attracted almost 200,000 border crossers in less than two years.

Authorities blame the surge in violence on so-called “asylum seekers” with connections to Latin American street gangs known for drug smuggling, human trafficking and murder.

“What goes on in third-world countries is happening on the streets of New York — every day, any borough, with no consequences,” Vickie Paladino, an NYC councilmember from Queens, told The Washington Times.

Ms. Paladino, one of the handful of Republicans on the 51-member city council, specifically cited Venezuelan migrants with an affiliation with the notorious Tren de Aragua gang as a growing concern for New Yorkers.

Two men with alleged ties to Venezuela’s largest crime syndicate — Kelvin Servita-Arocha, 19, and Wilson Omar Juarez-Aguilarte, 21 — were picked up by federal immigration agents last week.

Both were previously booked in January’s mob assault on NYPD cops in which a group of people punched and kicked two officers outside a migrant shelter while police were trying to make an arrest.

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The two suspects, along with three others, were taken into custody shortly after the Jan. 27 assault, but were released when the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office didn’t seek bail. The move drew widespread condemnation from lawmakers in both political parties and pushed Gov. Kathy Hochul to call for their deportation.

Another released mob assault suspect, Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, was arrested again last week in connection to a robbery of a Macy’s in Queens. 

Authorities haven’t said if the 19-year-old is affiliated with any organized crime groups.  

But Latin American gang members aren’t limiting themselves to street brawls. The New York Post reported that Tren de Aragua is collaborating with the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and is expanding its criminal expertise to America’s largest city.

“Tren de Aragua engages in extortion, kidnapping, robbery, homicide for hire — these guys are hitmen — drug and human trafficking, smuggling, all kinds of different things,” Gregg Etter, a criminologist at the University of Central Missouri who studies the Venezuelan gang, told The Times. “One thing about this group is they’re extremely adaptable, and they have a very short learning curve.”  

Mr. Etter said Tren de Aragua is responsible for a spate of moped-aided robberies tormenting pedestrians in New York City.

The gang will use gas-powered scooters to swipe phones and handbags while zipping through city streets.

The criminologist said the thieves hack into the stolen phones and wire money back to their leaders in South America.

Afterward, they’ll ship the devices back to Venezuela where the phones will be wiped and resold — something the gang didn’t do in their home country, but has picked up since arriving in the States, Mr. Etter said.

The thieves aren’t gentle during their heists, either.

Surveillance footage shared by the NYPD showed one 62-year-old woman — who was still clutching her purse — get knocked loose by the robbers after they dragged her into a metal bike rack.  

“They’re from these impoverished countries where they can’t eat, so they rob people,” Ms. Paladino said about the gang. “They have no money, so they knock old ladies down like they did here on a moped.”

But Venezuelan migrants who aren’t connected to the country’s gangs are still causing problems in New York.

A 15-year-old migrant from the South American nation was charged with attempted murder earlier this month after an armed assailant shot up a sporting goods store in Times Square.

Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa was accused of hitting a Brazilian tourist in the hail of bullets fired inside the business on Feb. 8 after he was stopped for shoplifting. Police also said the teen gunman shot at pursuing officers as he ran from authorities.

Prosecutors said Mr. Rivas-Figueroa, who has been charged as an adult, tried to flee the area the night of the shooting.

Police tracked the boy down in Yonkers a day later. A judge ordered the suspect to stay in jail while he awaits trial since he has “significant ties” to people back in Venezuela.    

Tren de Aragua has made its mark in other parts of the U.S., including in Miami-Dade County, where an alleged gang member was charged with killing a retired Venezuelan police officer in November.

Other cities have seen arrests of Venezuelan migrants surge as more enter the country.

CWBChicago cited police data that said 686 Venezuelans were taken into custody in the Windy City last year — a 2,500% increase from the 26 arrested in 2022.

Some view the uptick in migrant crime as the predictable result of President Biden’s policies regarding people crossing the U.S. southern border.

“Biden will come up with these just completely chaotic asylum and parole policies, and the next thing you know, we’ve got people flooding across the border,” Dan Stein, the president of the Federation of American Immigration Reform, told The Times. “Obviously, within that flood, are people who are members of gangs, and apparently those gangs are in communication with people back in Venezuela. This is international organized gang violence and crime.”

The Biden administration’s position on allowing thousands of Venezuelans to enter the U.S. with temporary protected status while also pushing to expel a host of illegal immigrants has led to confusion about their ability to enter the U.S., Mr. Stein said.

Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas said last fall that the U.S. will begin deporting Venezuelans back to their home country.

That decision came soon after the administration said they would grant work permits to the roughly 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the states prior to July 31. An additional 242,000 Venezuelans had already qualified for work permits at the time of Mr. Mayorkas’ announcement.

Officials said those who come to the U.S. after the cutoff date will be sent back to Venezuela, which has been mired in a decade-long humanitarian crisis that’s caused natives to flee the beleaguered socialist country.

Mr. Etter, the criminologist, said that 95% of illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. are often well-meaning people looking for a better life. But he said the remaining 5% who enter the country unlawfully will treat the flimsy border policies as an invitation to further test the American criminal justice system.

Back in New York, Councilwoman Paladino said she’s introducing legislation for police to list immigration status on arrest reports.

The goal of the legislation is to give authorities a clearer idea of how often migrants are involved in crimes. The proposal comes as Mayor Eric Adams prodded the council to cooperate once again with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that oversees deportations for people illegally in the country.      

The agreement, which was weakened in 2014 during former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, strengthened New York’s status as a “sanctuary city.” Democratic Mayor Ed Koch initially gave illegal immigrants certain protections in the 1980s.  

Ms. Paladino said she isn’t confident that her council colleagues will see the value in her bill as many still view the illegals as “asylum seekers.”

“I don’t see the tide turning,” she said. “If the mayor really wants to do what he needs to do, that’s using the power of the pen with an executive order.”

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.