New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday on X that he was "outraged" after a City Council employee was detained during a "routine" immigration appointment on Long Island on Monday.
"I am outraged to hear a New York City Council employee was detained in Nassau County by federal immigration officials at a routine immigration appointment," Mamdani said in the post. "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."
NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin said that the employee was detained by federal immigration officials during an appointment in Bethpage in Nassau County on Monday, adding that he has legal authorization to remain in the country until October, ABC News reported.
The City Council learned of his detention Monday afternoon, when the employee used his one phone call to reach out to the City Council 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.
Menin said the City Council is demanding the return of the employee, whom she did not identify, citing privacy concerns. He is a "central staff member working as a data analyst for approximately a year," she said.
Democrat New York Rep. 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 a press briefing Monday.
But a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson pushed back against that claim, describing the analyst, who the government identified as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, 53, as a "criminal illegal alien" who should have left the country years ago, the New York Post reported
DHS said the employee entered the U.S. on a B-2 tourist visa in 2017 that required him to leave the country later that year.
"He had no legal right to be in the United States," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "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."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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