Chants of “Abolish ICE!” were repeated at a rally Tuesday in support of the NYC Council data analyst detained by federal immigration officials during a routine court appointment on Long Island a day ago — a detention that has drawn the ire of community members, advocates and top local and state government officials.
A packed crowd of council members, staffers and advocates gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on Varick Street in Manhattan, where more than a dozen speakers rallied the crowd from a podium, including union leaders and at least half a dozen council members.
“We’re here standing in solidarity, but more than that, demanding that our colleague be released; that all those who have been disappeared, are released; and that ICE understand that in New York City they are not welcome here and that we will stand up to them and to the bullies in Washington that choose to make immigrant communities feel fear,” Council Member De La Rosa said.
“This is unacceptable. It is the exact kind of problem we’re seeing throughout our entire country — this is bigger than our coworker who is detained, this has a lot more to do with how ICE is contracting itself in the United States. The association will not stand for it — City Council will not stand for it — we are unified as a body from wall to wall,” Matthew Malloy, president of the Association of Legislative Employees, said.
At the same time, Council Speaker Julie Menin released a new statement saying that an emergency habeas petition had been filed to keep the worker in New York.
“We have confirmed this morning that the staffer is being held in New York State, confirming that the habeas petition was properly filed and preventing his removal from the State until his petition is resolved by a court,” the speaker said Tuesday.
Menin said the NYC Council has been unable to make contact with the staffer, but was working to reach his counsel.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a post on X Monday afternoon that he was “outraged” by the staffer’s detention.
“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values. I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation,” the mayor posted on X.
At a press conference earlier Monday, Menin called the staffer a “central” employee. She says ICE picked him up earlier in the day during an appointment in Bethpage and brought him to a federal detention facility on Varick Street in Manhattan.
He used his one phone call to contact the City Council’s human resources department, Menin said. The man has worked with the Council for about a year and had legal authorization to do so through October, she added.
Officials within the Department of Homeland Security, the speaker said, confirmed the staffer was taken during the court appointment but “provided no other basis for his detainment.”
“Despite every indication that he was doing everything the right way, he still found himself a victim of egregious government overreach,” Menin said at the press briefing. “These escalations raise serious concerns about overreach, about the use of excessive force and about the lack of accountability.”
Menin insisted there was no indication for the detention other than his immigration status.
DHS insists that the employee did not have the proper work authorization to be in the country.
“On Jan. 12, ICE New York City arrested Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and an employee of New York’s City Council. His criminal history includes an arrest for assault. He had no work authorization,” a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
Advocates decry the staffer’s detention as a targeted disruption of city government and a violation of due process. City Council staff, labor leaders and community allies planned to rally outside the ICE field office on Varick Street around noon to demand his release.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was among those to call for the same, saying in a post on X that he “must be released immediately.”
“We will not stand for attacks on our city, its public servants, and its residents,” she wrote.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul weighed in as well.
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