Federal immigration authorities sharply criticized a Suffolk County judge after he allowed a previously deported illegal immigrant to remain free following his fourth felony drunken-driving conviction.
A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Post that Judge Bryan Browns made the wrong call Friday when he declined to set bail for Pablo Aguilar-Alvarez, a 36-year-old Salvadoran national, despite prosecutors’ objections.
Officials say Aguilar-Alvarez is a flight risk because he is scheduled to return to court for sentencing in two months and could face up to seven years behind bars.
“The county judge should focus on public safety, not making excuses for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement,” an ICE spokesperson 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 spokesperson added. “Under President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”
Aguilar-Alvarez’s felony DWI history dates back to 2017. Prosecutors said he was deported in March 2024 after his third felony drunk-driving conviction, which stemmed from a June 2022 arrest.
Authorities said he later reentered the United States illegally.
He was arrested again in November after his frightened girlfriend called police from a Southampton gas station, where prosecutors said he had stopped to buy more alcohol.
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.
