| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ciro Riccardi | ciro@lawlerforcongress.com | (845) 642-6569 In Chappaqua, Congressman Lawler, gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, Putnam County Sheriff Brian Hess, Assemblyman Slater, and Jessica and Tom Gorman laid out two cases from the past week in which men in the country illegally were back on the street within hours of their arrests. Conley looked Sheridan Gorman’s parents in the eye on News 12 and would not give them a straight answer. Her own campaign website calls for the same ban on ICE partnerships that Hochul signed into law. Chappaqua, NY — October 7, 2026 — Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) stood with Jessica and Tom Gorman of Yorktown yesterday morning in Chappaqua and condemned Cait Conley for siding with Governor Kathy Hochul over the Gormans on Hochul’s new law banning partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE. Lawler called on Hochul to bring the Legislature back to Albany and repeal it. Lawler and the Gormans were joined by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor; Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne; Putnam County Sheriff Brian Hess; Assemblyman Matt Slater; Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for attorney general; Joseph Hernandez, the Republican candidate for state comptroller; and Yorktown Deputy Supervisor Sergio Esposito, a candidate for State Senate. Watch the press conference here. Lawler opened with a case from New Castle, where Cait Conley lives. Last Thursday, New Castle detectives caught Juan Guambana, 50, of Ossining, at a woman’s bathroom window while she was inside. They had set up surveillance at her home after she reported a man watching her through her window in the early morning hours. He was charged with six counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree, a felony, and was released on his own recognizance the same day. “This man has already been deported once, in 2020. By 2021, he was back,” Lawler said. The same week in Putnam County, Diego Rodriguez-Ordonez, 24, of Brewster, was charged with robbing a gas station in Kent and assaulting the clerk, and less than a day later with forcibly touching a woman on Metro-North. The Department of Homeland Security told the New York Post that he has convictions for multiple sex offenses and that ICE lodged a detainer for him on September 30. Sheriff Hess gave the most complete public account yet of those two days. He said Rodriguez-Ordonez walked out of the Putnam County Jail at 10 p.m. on September 28, after 60 days there on a Carmel criminal mischief charge. “By 3:00 a.m. on the 29th, so five hours later, he had tried to break into a bank. He had robbed a gas station, fled from the police into the woods where we had to recover him from a swamp,” Hess said. According to Hess, a judge released him on his own recognizance with an ankle monitor. About seven hours later, Carmel police picked him up for being drunk and disorderly at a shopping center. Police took him to a hospital, he was released an hour later, and he boarded a northbound train at the Brewster station. One stop later in Southeast, Hess said, he sexually assaulted a woman. “The police continue to do their job in those two days, but we need help from the system. We can’t do it alone,” Hess said. “Seventeen prior arrests, five interactions with law enforcement within less than a 48-hour window. We could do better than this.” “So in one week, two women in this district were victimized by men who had no legal right to be here, and both men were back on the street within hours of their arrests,” Lawler said. On August 25, Governor Hochul’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act banned every 287(g) agreement in New York, ending the partnerships that let trained officers in county jails work directly with ICE. Lawler pointed to the federal government’s count of what came before it. According to DHS, New York released 6,947 criminal illegal aliens between January 20 and December 1, 2025, after ICE asked for them to be held. Their records include 29 homicides and 207 sexual predatory offenses. “The question to Kathy Hochul should be very simple,” Lawler continued. “If your law is only about civil enforcement, then why are you not turning over criminals to ICE when there are detainer requests?” The Gormans’ daughter Sheridan, an 18-year-old freshman at Loyola University Chicago, was shot and killed in Chicago, a sanctuary city, on March 19. The man charged with her murder had been released by Border Patrol in 2023 and was free on an open warrant for skipping court on a shoplifting charge. At the September 28 News 12 debate, the Gormans asked Lawler and Democratic nominee Cait Conley whether they support New York’s new law, yes or no. Lawler said no. Conley spoke for a full minute and never answered. Her campaign website calls for “Revoking 287g agreements.” “Tom and I stood face to face with Cait Conley at the debate. We were just there to ask her a question in good faith about these policies,” Jessica Gorman said. “I think we deserved a straight answer. We didn’t get an answer. But now I have it. I have her answer.” “We’re heartbroken. We’re disappointed. And yes, we are scared. But we are not hopeless,” Jessica continued. “I’m here because I care about your kids. I think that if we can just save one life, then my daughter didn’t die in vain.” “So I’ll ask her again this morning, with Tom and Jess standing right here,” Lawler said. “Cait, do you support Kathy Hochul’s sanctuary law? Yes or no?” Nassau County ended its 287(g) agreement with ICE in August to comply with the new law. Blakeman said the day he had to tell his police and sheriff’s officers they could no longer cooperate with ICE was one of the toughest of his time as county executive, and he repeated his pledge to end New York’s sanctuary status. “On January 1st, as governor, I will sign an executive order. New York State is no longer a sanctuary state,” Blakeman stated. “The insanity is over. We’re putting New Yorkers first.” Slater, whose Assembly district includes Kent, Southeast and the Village of Brewster, said Republicans in Albany saw this coming. “When this was debated in Albany, we warned our colleagues. We warned the governor that this is exactly what would happen,” Slater said. “Bring us back to Albany today. Repeal sanctuary policies today. Repeal cashless bail today.” Byrne recounted that Sheridan volunteered for years with the Civil Air Patrol in Putnam County, and that the county lit its historic courthouse green in her memory. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, said that handing convicted criminals to federal authorities used to be routine in New York. “The safest way to enforce the law is to have an orderly handover at the jailhouse door,” Komatireddy said. Sergio Esposito closed the event with his own family’s connection: “My son went to school with Sheridan. He’s here. She’s not.” “Jess and Tom Gorman buried their daughter and then asked Cait Conley where she stands. She gave them a minute of talking points,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Sheriff Hess just walked through five interactions with law enforcement in less than 48 hours, ending with a woman assaulted on a train. Cait Conley chose Kathy Hochul’s sanctuary law over the Gormans. Will she reverse her position and stand with them, or keep standing with Hochul?” |
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