(NEW YORK) — A New York City Council employee was detained during a “routine” immigration appointment on Long Island on Monday, according to city officials, who called the incident an “egregious government overreach.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he is “outraged” by the worker’s arrest.
“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” he said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”
The Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest late Monday, saying the employee is in the U.S. illegally and has an alleged criminal history that includes an arrest for assault. The agency did not provide additional details on the assault arrest.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin identified the employee in a statement Monday night as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, whom she alleged is a “criminal illegal alien from Venezuela.”
McLaughlin said Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa in 2017 that required him to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017.
“He had no legal right to be in the United States,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Under Secretary 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.”
The employee was detained by federal immigration officials during an appointment in Bethpage in Nassau County earlier Monday, according to NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin.
The speaker said the employee has legal authorization to remain in the country until this coming October.
Menin said the employee is a “central staff member working as a data analyst for approximately a year.”
The city council learned of his detainment Monday afternoon, when the employee used his one phone call to contact the council’s human resources department for help and said he had been detained, according to Menin.
“DHS confirmed that this employee had gone in for a routine court appointment and was nevertheless detained. They provided no other basis for his detainment,” Menin said during a press briefing on Monday. “On the contrary, he was a city council employee who is doing everything right. He went to the court when he was asked.”
Menin said the city council is demanding the return of the employee, whom she did not identify, citing privacy concerns.
Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman said the employee is of Venezuelan descent and is a “law-abiding immigrant with work authorization.”
“I want to be very clear: There is no indication that there’s anything about this individual other than his immigration status that caused him to be arrested,” he said during Monday’s press briefing.
DHS said the staffer was not authorized to work in the U.S.
The employee has been transferred to a detention center in Manhattan, according to Menin. She said the city council has been unable to reach his family members.
Goldman said his office has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We will continue to fight this,” he said. “We will continue to push for not only this person’s release, which is so obviously necessary, but for this immigration dragnet to stop.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James also called for the staffer’s immediate release, saying in a statement on X, “We will not stand for attacks on our city, its public servants, and its residents.”
In response to the incident, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This is exactly what happens when immigration enforcement is weaponized.”
“Detaining people during routine court appearances doesn’t make us safer,” she said in a statement on X. “It erodes trust, spreads fear, and violates basic principles of fairness.”
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