ICE blasted a Long Island judge after a once-deported illegal immigrant was allowed to leave court free following his fourth felony drunk driving conviction. The dispute centers on Suffolk County Judge Bryan Browns, who released Salvadoran national Pablo Aguilar-Alvarez, 36, on Friday instead of keeping him behind bars until sentencing.
Federal immigration officials said Browns ignored prosecutors’ request to hold Aguilar-Alvarez without bail. The immigration agency called him a flight risk because he is scheduled to return to court for sentencing in two months, when he faces up to seven years in prison. ICE said it would work to locate, detain and remove him from the country, and argued that judges should put public safety first and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
According to Suffolk County prosecutors, Aguilar-Alvarez was deported in March 2024 after a third felony DWI conviction tied to a June 2022 arrest. Prosecutors said he was later arrested again in November after his girlfriend called police from a Southampton gas station, where he had pulled over to buy more alcohol. Southampton police then stopped him after seeing him run a stop sign and cross the double yellow line, and he was charged with a fourth drunk driving offense in 10 years.
Prosecutors also said Aguilar-Alvarez had a misdemeanor DUI in 2012. ICE went further, saying he has a broader criminal record that includes prior charges and convictions for DUI, drug possession and weapons possession. The agency said he returned to the United States after his 2024 deportation and that local law enforcement has repeatedly failed to honor ICE detainers after his arrests, including one lodged after the Nov. 29 Southampton case.
