Migrant charged in brutal beating of NYC cops had been caught at border — and released — last year
The migrant accused of leading the infamous beat-down of two cops in Times Square had been nabbed illegally crossing the US border just months earlier — but was released by the Harris-Biden administration.
Yohenry Brito, 24, of Venezuela crossed the border illegally into El Paso, Texas, and was apprehended by border agents May 9, 2023, according to a House Judiciary Committee report on the migrant’s file exclusively obtained by The Post.
Days later, on May 17, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security authorized his release into the US on his own recognizance because of a “lack of detention space.” Brito had indicated he needed asylum in the US because he feared returning to Venezuela.
Brito went on to be arrested multiple times for a slew of crimes in New York City — including the melee beating of a pair of NYPD officers in Manhattan in January.
The suspect is currently being held on bond over the beating and several other of the crimes.
DHS was slow to turn over the records on Brito to congressional officials, sitting on them for three months after Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) first requested them, the committee said.
The Judiciary panel called out “President Joe Biden and ‘border czar’ Vice President Kamala Harris” for the release of Brito — and “well over 7 million illegal aliens” — into the US, saying the move unleashed crime across the country.
“The results are all too predictable: cities overwhelmed, public services crushed, and communities shattered by the criminality of some illegal aliens,” the Judiciary report states. “Although the Biden-Harris Administration claims that illegal aliens are vetted before being released into the United States, the reality is much more disturbing.”
When the 59-year-old Harris was serving as California’s junior senator, she also supported left-wing immigration policy stances — including the decriminalization of illegal border crossings — but has since walked those positions back since replacing Biden, 81, at the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket.
When Brito was released from detention on the US border, he was given instructions warning him not to “associate with known gang members, criminal associates, or be associated with any such activity” and not to “commit any crimes.”
Soon after, he allegedly helped savagely beat the two cops alongside at least two other migrants tied to the ruthless Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang.
Brito was charged with assault and obstruction and indicted for tampering with physical evidence.
He and his six alleged accomplices were released from custody shortly after the violent caught-on-camera incident. Then, after public outcry, he was ordered held on $15,000 cash or $50,000 bond — when it surfaced he had allegedly sparked the attack while having two pending misdemeanor theft cases.
Brito was eventually again freed in February when the Rev. Juan Ruiz, the activist minister of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, put up the $15,000 for his release.
“Our church is basically a sanctuary,” Ruiz told The Post at the time. “We assume that people are innocent until they are proven otherwise.”
But Brito got caught red-handed two months later for petit larceny after allegedly trying to steal children’s clothing and “fragrances” from Macy’s Herald Square flagship store.
Judge Laura Ward said in Manhattan Criminal Court that she was “furious” he was arrested again while out on bail for the NYPD beating case, warning that another slip-up would land him behind bars.
“I am very tempted right now to put you in jail. I am telling you right now, if I learn you are rearrested for anything at all between now and this case being finished, I will order a warrant, and I will place bail so high, you will not get out,” she said.
“If you jaywalk, if you jump a turnstile, if you do anything at all and I have to issue a warrant, you will not see the light of day until this case is over,” Ward said.
It wasn’t long before Brito was accused of more alleged crime — this time for serial theft.
He allegedly robbed a Sephora twice, once in July when he cut security wires on display cases to steal perfumes, and again in early August when he ripped off $1,358 worth of merchandise from store shelves before fleeing with an accomplice, who was not arrested, police sources previously told The Post.
Brito was indicted Aug. 12 for the theft charges stemming from the Sephora robbery and is being held on a $25,000 bond for the July felony theft, in addition to a $50,000 cash bond for the Times Square cop beating.
The House Judiciary Committee has released a series of staff reports this year on the US border crisis, including on crimes allegedly committed by migrants in major cities such as New York and Chicago.
The crimes result from subpar “vetting” at the southern border that is similar to cross-checking migrants “against a blank sheet of paper,” according to testimony former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott made before the panel last year.
