Several dozen people protested Tuesday outside the Greater New York Federal Building in Manhattan, where a New York City Council employee is being held after an arrest at a scheduled immigration check-in earlier this week, according to the Associated Press.
The detained employee is Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, whose name is described in a habeas corpus petition that seeks his release. The petition, reviewed Tuesday by the AP, says Rubio Bohorquez has been seeking asylum and was arrested at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum office in Bethpage, on Long Island.
The petition also says Rubio Bohorquez has no criminal record, describing “no arrests, charges or convictions,” and it reports that a hearing on the petition is scheduled for Friday. It identifies Rubio Bohorquez as “R.A.R.B.” in the filing.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Rubio Bohorquez had long overstayed a tourist visa and that he lacked a legal right to be in the United States. ICE said he entered the country in 2017 on a B2 tourist visa and was required to leave by Oct. 22, 2017, and it also said he “had no work authorization.” ICE also said he had once been arrested for assault.
City leaders disputed the federal account. City Council Speaker Julie Menin said Rubio Bohorquez, a data analyst for the council, was legally authorized to work in the United States until October, and she disputed the claim that he had never been cleared to work.
Menin told reporters that the council employee signed a document as part of his employment confirming he had never been arrested and that he cleared the standard background check conducted for all applicants. She said officials were trying to reach Rubio Bohorquez’s family and obtain contact information for his immigration lawyer.
Menin also said she wanted to protect Rubio Bohorquez’s identity and referred to him only as a council employee, even as ICE confirmed his name, the AP reported. Menin characterized the Monday arrest as a “regular check-in that quickly went awry,” and she called it “egregious government overreach.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “outraged” about what he called “an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul referenced the arrest in her state of the state speech on Tuesday, asking: “Is this person really one of the baddest of the bad? Is this person really a threat?” Hochul also said, “I will do whatever it takes to protect New Yorkers from criminals,” while adding, “Enough is enough,” according to the AP.
A habeas petition was filed on Rubio Bohorquez’s behalf by the nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group. Lisa Rivera, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the staffer “did everything right by appearing at a scheduled interview, and yet ICE unlawfully detained him.”
The AP reported that ICE said Rubio Bohorquez had been employed by the City Council for about a year, and that his position pays about $129,315 per year, citing city payroll data. On the broader immigration context, the AP said Venezuela has seen large-scale displacement, with nearly 8 million people fleeing since 2014, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The AP also said that last year the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status that had been allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation, and that it was not clear from court papers whether Rubio Bohorquez was part of that program. The AP further noted that disputes over work authorization have arisen before, in part because employers may rely on E-Verify, which compares employee information with government records but does not automatically notify employers if an employee’s right to work is later revoked.