Arrest of NYC Council Employee Sparks Protests and a Dispute Over His Immigration Status

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City Council employee detained in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, according to a court petition seeking his release.

Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez was arrested Jan. 12 at a scheduled immigration check-in, enraging city leaders and drawing protesters on Jan. 13 to the Manhattan federal building where he is being held.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Rubio Bohorquez had long overstayed a tourist visa, had once been arrested for assault and “had no legal right to be in the United States.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin disputed that, telling reporters that Rubio Bohorquez, a data analyst for the city legislative body, was legally authorized to work in the U.S. until October. She also said in an emergency press conference she called that there was initally no way to get in touch with Rubio Bohorquez after he was initially picked up after reporting for what he presumed was a routine immigation hearing on his asylum application.

“Shockingly, the phone number doesn’t even work. It says the number is disconnected. There is no public information about how to reach someone that is being detained at the Bethpage facility. There’s actually no way to reach out to this individual,” Menin said.

Menin, a Democrat, said the council employee signed a document as part of his employment confirming that he had never been arrested and cleared the standard background check conducted for all applicants.

The court petition, reviewed Jan. 13 by The Associated Press, said Rubio Bohorquez—identified in the document as R.A.R.B.—had always been seeking asylum and was arrested at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum office in Bethpage, on Long Island.

Menin called it a regular check-in that “quickly went awry.”

The document, known as a petition for writ of habeas corpus, said Rubio Bohorquez has no criminal record—no arrests, charges or convictions. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Jan. 16.

ICE confirmed Rubio Bohorquez’s name. Menin said she wanted to protect his identity and referred to him only as a council employee.

“We are doing everything we can to secure his immediate release,” Menin told reporters. She decried the arrest as “egregious government overreach.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, said he was “outraged” by what he called “an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul referenced Rubio Bohorquez’s arrest in her state of the state speech on Jan. 13, asking: “Is this person really one of the baddest of the bad? Is this person really a threat?”

“I will do whatever it takes to protect New Yorkers from criminals, but people of all political beliefs are saying the same thing about what we’ve seen lately: Enough is enough,” said Hochul, a Democrat.

Menin said officials were attempting to reach Rubio Bohorquez’s family and obtain contact information for his immigration lawyer.

The nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group filed the habeas petition on Rubio Bohorquez’s behalf. The organization’s president and CEO, Lisa Rivera, said it represents dozens of people who have been wrongfully detained by ICE and hundreds who are following immigration procedures in hopes of staying in the U.S.

“This staffer, who chose to work for the city and contribute his expertise to the community, did everything right by appearing at a scheduled interview, and yet ICE unlawfully detained him,” Rivera said in a statement.

The demonstration on January 12 was outside a federal lockup at 20 Varick St., where ICE sometimes holds detainees. Some of the protestors carried signs that read: “Abolish ICE” and “No Human Is Illegal’.” The CITY, a non-profit newsroom affiliated with the City University Graduate School of Journalism reported he might have been held at a different facility. “Attorneys have since confirmed he’s at a detention facility in New York State but have declined to say which one. People arrested in New York City and parts of the surrounding region are often taken to holding cells inside 26 Federal Plaza, not Varick Street.”

According to ICE, Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. in 2017 on a B2 tourist visa and was required to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017. He has been employed by the City Council for about a year, Menin said. His position pays about $129,315 per year, according to city payroll data.

“He had no work authorization,” ICE said in a statement confirming Rubio Bohorquez’s arrest. The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said that under Secretary Kristi Noem “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our law, we will find you and we will arrest you.”

Venezuela has been roiled for years by violence and economic instability. Nearly eight million people have fled the South American nation since 2014, according to the United Nations refugee agency. The US seized its president Nicholas Manduro in a nighttime raid on Jan. 3.

Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration ended Temporary Protected Status that had been allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. It wasn’t clear from court papers whether Rubio Bohorquez had been a part of that program.

Disputes over an immigrant’s work authorization have arisen before, in part because many employers rely on E-Verify. The system compares information provided by employees with records available to the government but doesn’t automatically notify an employer if an employee’s right to work is later revoked.