NYPD detectives and U.S. Marshals pulled two wanted suspects from a basement in Lynn, Massachusetts, overnight, closing a manhunt after the bloody stabbing of an off-duty New York City detective.

Fox News reported that Dangelo Rafael Jean Caraballo, 25, and Sneider Mejia Bautista, 24, were found hiding in a home after authorities tracked them north. Both are Dominican citizens who federal officials say were living in the United States illegally. They were wanted for the attempted murder of Detective Jose Mercedes.

The case lands at the center of a larger fight over border releases, ICE detainers, and New York sanctuary rules that blocked removal of repeat offenders. Homeland Security officials say both men crossed unlawfully through Arizona, then were released into the country under the Biden administration before stacking local arrests in New York.

Chain snatch turns into a street fight

Police say the attack unfolded as Mercedes cleared out the trunk of his car. The suspects tried to snatch his gold chain. When the detective fought back, he was stabbed and slashed multiple times.

The New York Post reported that Mercedes was stabbed seven times while resisting the robbery attempt in the Bronx. He still chased the alleged attackers for two blocks before collapsing. He was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in Morris Park.

Mercedes left the hospital this week. On Monday he was wheeled out of Jacobi and stood up in front of clapping officers, a hard image of a cop who refused to fold on the street.

That kind of knife violence has hit families in other cities too, including a fatal stabbing case involving a Venezuelan national outside a Bay Area home.

Criminal records and blocked ICE detainers

Federal officials describe both suspects as illegal aliens with serious local paper. Caraballo’s New York record, as listed by authorities, includes reckless endangerment, reckless driving, unlawful fleeing from a police officer in a motor vehicle, possession of burglar’s tools, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon involving a loaded firearm, and second-degree menacing with a weapon.

After a December 2024 arrest for possession of burglar’s tools, local authorities released Caraballo before ICE could lodge an immigration detainer.

Bautista’s listed priors include criminal possession of stolen property, possession of burglar’s tools, grand larceny, and criminal possession of a weapon. After an October 2025 weapon charge, ICE lodged a detainer. Local officials declined it under New York City sanctuary policies. DHS also said that after other arrests, Bautista was released so quickly that ICE could not lodge detainers in time.

Readers tracking soft-on-crime politics will recognize the pattern in other fights over enforcement, including when a Sacramento sheriff ripped Democratic leadership over crime failures.

Breitbart reported that Bautista was released into the United States in December 2022 after the Arizona border encounter, and that Caraballo had multiple New York arrests, including a loaded firearm case, without an ICE detainer filed in time. The outlet framed the attack as the predictable result of catch-and-release plus local non-cooperation.

DHS blames open borders and sanctuary politics

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin tied the stabbing to national and city policy failures in blunt terms.

"This horrific crime could have been prevented if it weren’t for Biden’s open borders and the America Last policies of New York sanctuary politicians."

Mullin pressed New York to work with federal immigration officers.

"DHS is calling on New York authorities to cooperate with us so we can get these dangerous criminals off our streets. Our thoughts and prayers are with the detective for a speedy recovery."

In a separate remark highlighted in recent coverage, Mullin said last month, "Before you put them back on the streets, let us deport them." The New York Post also carried his charge that both suspects were released into the country by the Biden administration and that sanctuary politicians refused to cooperate with ICE despite multiple prior arrests.

Family frustration broke into the open as well. Ricardo Mercedes, the detective’s uncle, said, "The police catch them, but then they’re let go, right back out on the street."

New York has seen other savage stabbing cases that jolt the public, including an NYPD case in which a mother was fatally stabbed in a city park while her young son watched.

How the pair was found

U.S. Marshals played a key role in locating Caraballo and Bautista. NYPD detectives made the arrests overnight at the Lynn residence after the pair was tracked to the basement hideout. Authorities have described the men as suspects wanted for attempted murder in the attack on Mercedes. No public conviction has been reported in the package of facts surrounding this case.

Investigators and prosecutors will still need to lock down charging paperwork, venue details, and a full courtroom timeline. Absolute dates and times for the Bronx attack itself have not been laid out in the public accounts summarized here. The precise Bronx street location of the trunk confrontation and two-block chase also has not been detailed in those accounts.

What has been detailed is the enforcement gap. DHS says the men entered unlawfully, were released at the federal level, then cycled through New York arrests while detainers were late, blocked, or declined. That sequence is the policy fight conservatives have warned about for years: street cops make arrests, then the revolving door opens again.

Knife crime keeps producing ugly headlines nationwide, from robbery slashings to hate-driven attacks such as a Santa Monica man sentenced to life for a racist Metro bus stabbing.

Policy stakes beyond one basement arrest

The Massachusetts takedown removes two accused attackers from the street for now. It does not erase the record that came before the gold-chain robbery attempt. Loaded firearms, burglar’s tools, stolen property, grand larceny, menacing, and repeated releases are not a paperwork glitch. They are a system choice.

Sanctuary rules that decline ICE detainers force a hard question onto local leaders: when federal officers ask to hold a removable alien after a weapons bust, who answers for the next victim if the answer is no? Mullin’s statement puts that question on New York politicians by name and on Biden-era border releases as the front end of the pipeline.

Democrats who sneer at basic enforcement keep selling the same trade: lighter contact with ICE, faster release, and faith that repeat offenders will self-correct. Street cops and wounded detectives live with different math. So do uncles who watch a family member get cut to pieces over a chain, then watch the same political class shrug at detainers.

That soft-on-crime instinct shows up far beyond immigration cases, including candidates who treat tough drug enforcement as optional, as when a Michigan Senate candidate branded anti-fentanyl laws draconian and backed supervised drug sites.

For now, Caraballo and Bautista are in custody after a multi-agency hunt. Mercedes is out of the hospital and on his feet. The legal process will test the attempted murder case in court. The policy process will test whether New York keeps stiff-arming ICE when the next detainer lands on a weapons arrest.

Law and order is not a slogan when a detective is bleeding on a Bronx sidewalk. It is the minimum duty of a government that still claims to protect its own.