Samuel Reveron Ascanio
Introduction
Samuel Reveron Ascanio is a 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant who became the public face of New York City’s “mole man” sewer incidents when he was photographed emerging from a manhole on Park Avenue near East 61st Street — down the block from the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to stay during the UN General Assembly — before dawn on September 23, 2026. Arrested and charged with criminal trespassing, he was released by a Manhattan judge on a non-bail-eligible charge, and federal immigration agents took him into custody on October 2, 2026, executing a warrant that had existed since September 21. ICE publicly criticized the city for releasing him, making his case a flashpoint in the ongoing dispute over New York’s sanctuary-city limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Background Information
Reveron Ascanio entered the United States illegally in August 2022, according to ICE, which said he was released into the country under the Biden administration’s border policies. Prosecutors said the men caught in the sewer were neither spies nor terrorists but were “fishing for discarded or lost treasures” in the city’s depths. On September 20, 2026, he was arrested in Queens after police found him under a U-Haul van in a parking lot with two other males who told officers they were repairing it; the rental company told police the men lacked permission to remove parts, and he was charged with alleged criminal mischief, per police sources. A federal arrest warrant — the one ICE later executed — was issued for him two days later, on September 22, the day before the sewer incident.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. Reveron Ascanio has been charged but not tried. The account below is drawn from the criminal complaint and police statements cited in news coverage, and he is presumed innocent of the charges unless and until proven guilty in court.
Around 4:30 a.m. on September 23, 2026, a 911 caller reported seeing three men climb out of a sewer manhole at Park Avenue and East 61st Street in Manhattan; the trio used two Toyota Corollas to block the manholes before fleeing in them. The sighting caused a security scare because Netanyahu was expected at a hotel down the block during the UN General Assembly, though investigators concluded the men were “mole people” hunting scrap metal and valuables washed into storm drains — not plotting anything related to the visit. The NYPD arrested Reveron Ascanio on September 24 and charged him with criminal trespassing and driving with a suspended license; according to the criminal complaint, he and co-defendant Kevin Rodriguez, 26, told detectives they entered the manhole together to look for valuables. He pleaded not guilty and, because trespassing is not a bail-eligible offense, Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne ordered him released the next day — despite the outstanding federal warrant — and the city did not transfer him to ICE.
Public Reaction and Consequences
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations’ New York field office director, Kenneth Genalo, said the city had “a clear opportunity to transfer this individual to ICE in a secure, controlled environment” and instead “recklessly released him despite his repeated arrests and unresolved criminal charges — a choice that needlessly returned an alleged public-safety threat to the streets.” The NYPD responded that it does not participate in civil immigration enforcement under city law. The story drew national attention because it fused two running controversies: the surreal string of “mole man” sewer sightings across Manhattan and Brooklyn through September, and the sanctuary-city policy dispute over judges releasing defendants with federal detainers — the same judge, Jack-Browne, had earlier released a deported sex offender despite an ICE detainer, a case where court officials and the NYPD disputed whether she had been notified. Reveron Ascanio’s lawyer said learning of the federal arrest was “news to me.”
Current Status
Reveron Ascanio was taken into federal custody by ICE on October 2, 2026, and is in detention pending removal proceedings, with the Manhattan criminal trespass and suspended-license charges still pending against him. Co-defendant Kevin Rodriguez, a legal US resident, was also charged with criminal trespassing; police were still seeking a third man from the sewer incident. His defense attorney, Brian Kennedy, said he was unaware of the ICE arrest when reached by the Post.
Impact on Their Career/Life
For Reveron Ascanio, a shoplifting-adjacent trespass case turned into federal custody and likely deportation — ICE’s New York leadership framed his arrest as proof that “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US” and said the agency “will not allow noncooperation to deter us from enforcing federal immigration law.” For New York City, his case became the newest exhibit in the argument over sanctuary rules: ICE said the city had the man in custody and released him with a federal warrant outstanding, while the city points to laws that bar police from holding people for civil immigration enforcement. The episode also made him the first of the sewer explorers publicly identified and federalized, after weeks in which the “mole man” sightings were a tabloid mystery rather than a federal immigration story.