Venezuelan migrant begged NYC judge to send him to Rikers to avoid ICE but feds got him anyway

New York Post

15-07-2025

A Venezuelan migrant who begged a judge to send him to Rikers Island to avoid being taken into custody to waiting immigration agents has been turned over to the feds.
Nolveiro Vera Ordonez, 30, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court June 4 on petty larceny and possession of stolen property charges for allegedly stealing a bicycle while five masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited for him outside the courtroom — prompting him to demand to be locked up.
Although the judge complied and ordered him held on $100 'voluntary' bail, Ordonez couldn't outrun the feds forever — he was handed over to the Department of Homeland Security on a federal warrant less than three weeks later, authorities confirmed this week.
3 Nolveiro Vera Ordonez was arraigned on theft charges while ICE agents waited, so he asked to go to Rikers Island.
AP
'This individual was released to the Department of Homeland Security on a federal arrest warrant,' a spokesperson for the city Department of Correction said in an email. 'Prior to his release, he paid bail on the local matter.'
According to the department, Ordonez was turned over to the feds on June 23.
While New York is a migrant-friendly 'sanctuary city,' the law dictates that an inmate may be released to another jurisdiction if corrections officials are presented with 'an immigration detainer supported by probable cause' or has a 'qualifying conviction' for a violent crime over the prior five years.
3 Federal immigration agents have been stalking Big Apple court hearings in masks to nab illegal immigrants.
Getty Images
Federal sources told The Post that Ordonez was being held at the Brooklyn federal lockup this week after being picked up by US Marshals and is awaiting transfer to Texas.
As of late Monday, he was not in ICE custody and was not currently due for deportation, sources said.
Ordonez was picked up by police for allegedly stealing a bike, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, petty larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.
3 Judge Rachel Salem Pauley called Nolveiro Vera Ordonez's 'voluntary' bail request 'highly unusual.'
In court, his public defender attorney asked Judge Rachel Pauley that he be held on $100 bail, citing a quirk in the law that allows a defendant to request bail, although the charges are not eligible for bail under the state's controversial criminal justice reforms.
Pauley granted the request despite noting it was 'highly unusual.'
However, less than three weeks later Ordonez was turned over to the feds.