Exclusive | NYC ICE director declares it would take a lifetime to deport the citys migrant criminals

There are thousands of migrant criminals roaming the streets of Gotham, the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s NYC field office told The Post.“In New York City, it would take a lifetime to clear the city of the criminals that we have” if the status quo remains the same, Kenneth Genalo said Friday in his first interview since Donald Trump was elected president.“We need additional resources,” insisted the 33-year ICE veteran who oversees nearly 400 staffers as regional director of the NYC-area office.“The fact is that I have to focus all of my resources on the worst of the worst, the most egregious violators.All I can tell you is we have leads that we work every day — and it’s not in the hundreds,” added Genalo, all but admitting for the first time that the number is in the thousands.Of the nearly 7.8 million illegal immigrants in the United States, 662,586 are convicted felons or havecriminal charges pending, the agency said of data through July 21.More than 223,000 migrants have poured into the Big Apple since the immigration crisis began in the spring of 2022 — and at least 58,000 are still being cared for by taxpayers in city-funded shelters.

ICE did not provide the exact number of criminals among them.Genalo wouldn’t say how the agency will transform under Trump, who plans to launch a mass deportation of illegal, criminal migrants after being sworn in as president in January.But he’s so “frustrated” over New York’s sanctuary laws preventing migrant criminals from being rounded up and deported under his watch that he wants to testify before the City Council and “educate” it’s far-left majority about the damage these policies are doing.“The only people they’re shielding are the criminals, and they’re shielding the criminals from us,” Genalo said.He continued: “The majority of these crimes that are being committed are against the most vulnerable people in the community, and that’s the migrant females a...