Sen. Lindsey Graham penned a brief but scathing letter Friday calling for a federal response to the “brazen” beat-down of two NYPD cops by migrants near Times Square — and demanded to know if the “aliens” behind the attack will be deported.
Graham said he was “saddened but not surprised to hear about the latest consequences of President Biden’s illegal immigration crisis” in his missive to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“I write today to ask what the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security intend to do in response to this brazen attack,” the South Carolina Republican continued.
“Will the aliens who perpetrated this attack be deported? If so, when? If not, why not?” he demanded to know.
Graham’s letter comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul – a Democrat — amped up her own call for the migrants involved in the vicious caught-on-camera brawl to get booted from the US.
“Get them all and send them back,” Hochul told reporters during an unrelated press conference Thursday.
Seven suspects — all asylum seekers from Venezuela — have been arrested and charged in connection with the beating, police said.
Five of them — including Jhoan Boada, who flipped off cameras as he left the courtroom Wednesday — were released without bail after being charged with second-degree assault on police officers and obstructing government administration.
Darwin Andres Gomez, 19, Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19, Wilson Juarez, 21, and Yorman Reveron, 24, are believed to have since skipped town on a bus bound for California, sources told The Post.
At the time of his arrest for the cop beating, Reveron was already the subject of two open criminal cases in Manhattan — including allegations that he punched a worker at Macy’s Herald Square last month while supposedly trying to rob the retailer.
Police sources added that at least one more suspect remains the subject of an NYPD manhunt related to the incident.
Investigators are also apparently investigating whether four of the suspects may be tied to the Tren de Aragua gang, which is referred to as Venezuela’s “most powerful homegrown criminal actor” and also has a growing international profile, sources told The Post.
The gang’s violence in other countries has apparently set off alarm bells for foreign governments and prompted major operations targeting the group in Chile, Peru and Colombia, a report viewed by The Post explained.
Police have noticed similarities between the group’s known MO and the suspects’ own clothing, hair and tattoos.
The vicious assault took place around 8:30 p.m. Saturday when Lt. Ben Kurian and Police Officer Tian Zunxu tried to intervene in a raucous group outside a shelter on West 42nd Street.
The police officers got one of the migrants to the ground while the others took turns kicking the two cops before running off.
Both men suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell called the migrants involved in the attack “cowards” at a press briefing Wednesday, and slammed the decision to release the five suspects.
“Reprehensible,” the chief said. “You want to know why our cops are getting assaulted? There are no consequences. Eight people attacked two cops. Cowards.”
