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A top federal attorney in New York is speaking out against the state’s sanctuary city policies after allegedly being attacked by a knife-wielding undocumented migrant.
John Sarcone III, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, said the incident happened while he was walking to the State Capitol building in Albany. Sarcone says he noticed a man behaving erratically nearby and had a feeling something was wrong.
“I could have easily just kept walking,” Sarcone told “Fox & Friends” Friday. “But I sensed that there was danger here.”
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ALBANY, NY – APRIL 28: U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York John A. Sarcone III holds a criminal complaint that was brought against an accused online sexual predator on Monday, April 28, 2025.. (Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images) (Getty Images/Will Waldron)
According to Sarcone, the man began shouting in a language he didn’t understand. “I didn’t acknowledge him. I kept looking straight ahead. Then out of the corner of my eye, he starts coming towards me,” he describes.
The man allegedly pulled out a knife and began “charging” at the attorney, who ran into the lobby of a nearby hotel and called the sheriff of Albany County.
“I knew that if he got away, he was going to kill somebody,” Sarcone said. He went back outside to try and keep the suspect nearby.
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(U.S. Attorney John Sarcone described the shocking moment suspect Saul Morales-Garcia allegedly lunged at him with a knife on the streets of Albany, N.Y.)
“I went to the sidewalk to try to keep him in the area and I yelled out. And he turned around. He yelled back. And then he came back at me,” Sarcone said.
The man reportedly then made a threatening gesture by drawing a knife across his own neck. Sarcone said he took that as a sign the suspect meant to kill him, “He’s [going to] slit my throat.”
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The suspect has been identified as 40-year-old Saul Morales-Garcia, a migrant from El Salvador who entered the United States unlawfully in 2021. He was arrested at the scene and charged with attempted murder, felony weapons possession and menacing.
Sarcone claims the attack was the direct cause of sanctuary city policies and an influx of undocumented migrants. He said he shared that view directly with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul when she contacted him after the attack.
“She was very sympathetic and concerned. And I said to her, I said, ‘Look, the sanctuary cities aren’t working.’“
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Earlier this month, the Department of Justice launched a lawsuit against New York over similar issues, claiming an act by the state shields criminal aliens from being lawfully detained. The Protect Our Courts Act, passed by New York’s legislature in 2020, prohibits federal immigration agents from making civil arrests in or around state courthouses.
