Although many of the events appear to be true, they are not as straightforward as Musk describes. In a post on X that Fox Business also reported on, Musk said, "[Democrats refusing to deport illegal immigrants] has become so brazen that a gang of illegals can beat up police officers on camera in Times Square, get out of jail for free, and still not get deported!"
First, not all of the suspects were released without bail. CBS News reported that Yohenry Brito was charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of assault on a police officer and had his bail set at $15,000 cash. Additionally, the suspects were not simply given free bus tickets by the government. The suspects boarded the bus using fake names provided to a nonprofit group that was working with the city to address migrant issues.
Musk's framing suggests that such events are commonplace. Expert commentary provides some context about the frequency of such incidents. According to reporting by ABC 7 NY, Robert Agyemang, the Vice President of the New York Immigration Coalition, says, "I think that we have to really highlight that these are isolated incidents...it feeds into the belief system that these people are coming and they're messing up things when it's not really the case." Similarly, Anthony Capote of the Immigration Research Initiative emphasizes that "very often they are very, very afraid of crime because they know crime is a one-way ticket for deportation."
