<p>Officials in New York City have indicated they will ignore an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer placed on the illegal immigrant who allegedly burned a woman alive on the subway, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Noem visited the Coney Island subway station where Sebastian Zapeta, 33, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-indicted-after-allegedly-burning-woman-to-death-on-nyc-subway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allegedly</a> set Debrina Kawam on fire while she was sleeping in a subway car. In a post on X, Noem said New York officials weren’t cooperating with ICE.</p>
<p>“ICE lodged an immigration detainer with the NYC Department of Corrections to take this depraved alien into custody. Because of current sanctuary city policy, the corrections department has indicated it will NOT honor the detainer,” Noem said.</p>
<p>“This is disgusting. New York politicians are allowing the murder of their own citizens,” she continued. “NY Governor Hochul should impose an emergency suspension of sanctuary protection by executive order NOW.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">I went to the Coney Island subway station where Debrina Kawam was set on fire and killed by an illegal alien.</p>
<p>ICE lodged an immigration detainer with the NYC Department of Corrections to take this depraved alien into custody. Because of current sanctuary city policy, the… <a href="https://t.co/jfJyKclDOx">pic.twitter.com/jfJyKclDOx</a></p>
<p>— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/1897430663244247447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Detainers are put in place so that officials will hold illegal immigrants until ICE can pick them up for deportation proceedings, but sanctuary cities like New York City refuse to cooperate with federal officials, often even when the detainer is applied to violent criminals.</p>
<p>Zapeta faces murder and arson charges for the attack on Kawam, which occurred in late December.</p>
<p>In footage taken by a fellow passenger on the day of the attack, Zapeta can be seen on footage watching Kawam stand in the subway car while burning to death. The footage also shows other passengers and even a police officer walking by without stopping to help.</p>
<p>“It’s the most depraved act that a human being can commit against another person,” Noem said in her video this week.</p>
<p>Investigators reportedly said Zapeta and the woman didn’t know each other and had no interaction before Zapeta lit a lighter and tossed it on her. The attack damaged Kawam’s body so badly that it took more than a week to identify her.</p>
<p>“The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/nypd-holds-news-conference-on-the-lighting-of-a-woman-on-fire-on-a-subway-car/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a press conference</a> shortly after the attack.</p>
<p>Officers and a transit worker grabbed a fire extinguisher and attempted to save the woman, but she died on the scene, CBS reported.</p>
<p>“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car, and the body worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear, detailed look at the killer,” Tisch said on Sunday. “Three high school age New Yorkers called 911 to say that they recognize the suspect. They saw something and they said something, and they did something.”</p>
<p>Zapeta reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 during the first Trump administration, but was deported within days, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/23/us-news/nyc-subway-burn-suspect-is-illegal-migrant-from-guatemala-who-sneaked-into-us-after-being-deported/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The man then re-entered the United States again and made his way to New York, where he was living in a migrant shelter.</p>

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NYC To Ignore ICE Detainer On Illegal Immigrant Who Allegedly Set Woman On Fire In Subway