Federal authorities say they are searching for Alpha Bah, a Guinean national accused of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon on October 7, after New York City released him from custody without notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement despite a detainer request filed the same day. It is the second time in four months that the city has let Bah go free even though ICE had flagged him for pickup, and he remains at large.
A Pattern of Releases Despite Federal Flags
Bah was arrested on October 7 on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration, according to Fox News. ICE lodged a detainer request with Queens Central Booking that same day, but the outlet reports the NYPD ignored it and released Bah without alerting federal agents. It was not the first time this had happened — in June 2026, Bah faced charges of intent to obtain transportation without paying, and ICE lodged a detainer with Manhattan Central Booking, but the NYPD released him following that arrest as well, per the report.
Bah's history with law enforcement in the city goes back further. He was also arrested for criminal trespassing in January 2025, but the outlet's report says he was released before ICE could even request a detainer. Bah entered the United States illegally in November 2023 and had resided in Arizona before U.S. Border Patrol took him into custody, according to the same account.
Homeland Security Officials Respond
The case drew a sharp response from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who called on Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to end the city's sanctuary policies, describing them as evil, as reported by Fox News. ICE separately said it lodged 14,766 immigration detainers across New York state between January 2025 and September 2026, a figure the agency attributed to Mullin, though the scope and methodology behind that number were not detailed. In an earlier statement, ICE said it had prepared more than 440 detainers against people booked by the NYPD or the city's Department of Correction during a three-month span from January to mid-April 2025.
Immigration detainers are requests that allow federal authorities to take custody of removable noncitizens who have been arrested locally, rather than releasing them back into the community. The NYPD's own annual reporting on civil immigration detainers tracks how many it receives, how many people are held beyond their scheduled release, how many are transferred to ICE custody, and how many detainers go unhonored, according to the New York Police Department. A department summary covering July 2025 through June 2026 lists 9,645 civil immigration detainers received and zero individuals held beyond their otherwise scheduled release from NYPD custody.
Not an Isolated Incident
Bah's case is not the only recent flashpoint in the city's handling of ICE detainers. Earlier this month, ICE said it lodged detainers against two Dominican nationals arrested in connection with the alleged stabbing of an off-duty NYPD detective in the Norwood section of the Bronx, underscoring the friction between federal immigration enforcement and local policing in New York.
As of now, Bah's whereabouts remain unknown, and federal authorities continue searching for him. Fox News reported the Alpha Bah case on October 28, 2026, before The Bronx Daily published its report on October 29, 2026, framing it as evidence that New York City released Alpha Bah twice despite the standing ICE detainers.
