Long Island postal worker accused of helping man escape ICE while she was in uniform
NEW YORK -- A postal worker on Long Island faced charges on Thursday that she interfered with an immigration arrest by helping a detainee to briefly escape custody.
Tamara Mayorga-Wong, 57, is charged with obstructing a federal proceeding. She is due in federal court on Thursday afternoon in Central Islip.
Mayorga-Wong, while wearing her USPS uniform, approached federal law enforcement officers detaining a man in front of a 7/11 convenience store next to the Westhampton Post Office on Nov. 5, according to the criminal complaint.
"You can't do this," the complaint quoted her saying to the ICE officers and HSI agents.
After they placed the detainee in the rear of the police vehicle, and prepared to drive away, Mayorga-Wong ran up to the rear passenger door, opened it, and told the man, in Spanish, to flee, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said.
The federal law enforcement officers chased after the man and took him back into custody.
Mayorga-Wong was stopped while entering her personal vehicle, parked in the Westhampton Post Office rear employee parking lot. After several minutes of refusing to get out of her vehicle, she was forcibly removed - while kicking the officers and flailing her arms.
According to the complaint, while in custody, Mayorga-Wong asked a bilingual deportation officer, in both Spanish and English, "Why are you doing this to your people?"
She then allegedly asked whether the officers were from Mexico, if the officer had children, demanding "What are you going to tell your children about what you do?"
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