Federal immigration officials tore into a Suffolk County judge for allowing a once-deported illegal immigrant to remain free after his fourth felony drunk driving conviction.
A rep for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Post Judge Bryan Browns blew it when he ignored prosecutors and allowed Salvadoran national Pablo Aguilar-Alvarez, 36, to walk away without bail Friday.
He’s considered a flight risk as he’s due back in court for sentencing in two months, when he faces up to seven years in prison.
“The county judge should focus on public safety, not making excuses for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement,” a spokesperson for the federal agency said. “ICE will do everything in its power to find, detain, and remove this criminal illegal alien from American communities.
“Our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and you will never return,” the flak said. “Under President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”
Aguilar-Alvarez, whose string of felony drunk driving convictions date to 2017, was deported in March 2024 after his third felony DWI conviction for a June 2022 arrest, prosecutors said.
At some point, he snuck back into the US, authorities said.
He was arrested again in November after his panicked gal pal called cops from a Southampton gas station where he pulled over to pick up more booze, Suffolk County prosecutors said Monday.
Southampton cops pulled him over after he was spotted blowing through a stop sign and driving across the double yellow line on the road, and hit him with his fourth drunk driving charge in 10 years.
Prosecutors said Aguilar-Alvarez also had a misdemeanor DUI in 2012.
But ICE said Tuesday that the immigrant also “has an extensive criminal history, including previous charges and convictions for DUI, drug possession, and weapons possession.”
The spokesperson said that, after Aguilar-Alvarez snuck back into the country after he was deported in 2024, local law enforcement has consistently failed to honor ICE’s detainers every time they’ve been lodged following Aguilar Alvarez’s arrests.
They said an immigration detainer was also lodged after the Nov. 29 Southampton arrest.
A Suffolk County jury found Aguilar-Alvarez guilty of felony DWI on Friday, with prosecutors asking the judge to hold him without bail until his Oct. 2 sentencing — but Browns let him free until then.
The New York State Office of Court Administration, which speaks for Empire State judges, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.
The judge previously worked with the Suffolk County Branch of the nonprofit Legal Aid Society, which provides legal help to people from underprivileged backgrounds.
The firm represented Aguilar-Alvarez in the latest case, according to Suffolk DA Ray Tierney.
Browns has overseen DUIs before, including a 2022 case involving a Polish national who fled the country after being indicted for a fatal drunken crash. Browns ordered the con — who also had previous DUIs — held without bail after he was apprehended and extradited to the US.
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