The New York Police Department has arrested a man wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat on hate crime charges for allegedly pushing an immigrant onto the subway tracks in New York City last week.

Willie Ames, 47, was arrested Thursday — almost a week after he allegedly got into a verbal argument with a 24-year-old man on the subway, identified by local media as Luis Lopez.

According to the NYPD, Ames, while wearing a hat and shirt with the phrase popularized by President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, "made multiple derogatory statements regarding the victim's ethnicity," to Lopez on April 20.



According to the New York Post, Ames reportedly told Lopez, who is from Mexico, “You come here and you take our jobs. You bring drugs."

Both men got off the train at Union Square and Ames allegedly punched the victim in the head several times while on the platform, and then allegedly pushed him onto the tracks below. A friend helped Lopez back on the platform.

"Thank God there wasn’t a train coming — it would have been a sure death. I would have died if it wasn’t for him," Lopez told the New York Daily News of his friend. Lopez was transported to a local hospital and treated for a head injury.

Police said Ames fled the platform and got on another subway train heading to Brooklyn.

Ames was arrested Thursday on Staten Island and charged with three counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of aggravated harassment. He is due in court Friday.