Outrage has erupted in New York City following the arrest of a City Council employee as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The detention of Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez prompted a protest outside a Manhattan detention center on Tuesday, with city officials expressing fury.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stated that Rubio Bohorquez had significantly overstayed a tourist visa and had previously been arrested for assault, asserting he “had no legal right to be in the United States.”
However, City Council Speaker Julie Menin challenged this claim. She informed reporters that Rubio Bohorquez, a data analyst for the legislative body, was legally permitted to work in the U.S. until October.
Menin, a Democrat, added that the council employee had signed a document confirming no prior arrests and had successfully passed the standard background check required for all applicants.
The New York Immigration Coalition and New York Legal Assistance Group filed a petition after Rubio Bohorquez’s arrest Monday asking a court to order his release, Menin and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
ICE confirmed Rubio Bohorquez’s name. Menin and Goldman referred to him only as a council employee. She said she was doing so to protect his identity.
“We are doing everything we can to secure his immediate release,” Menin said at a Monday evening news conference. She decried the arrest as “egregious government overreach.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, said he was “outraged,” calling the arrest “an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values.”
Menin said officials were attempting to reach his family and obtain contact information for his immigration lawyer.
Rubio Bohorquez, originally from Venezuela, was detained at an immigration appointment in Bethpage, on Long Island, authorities said. Menin called it a regular check-in that “quickly went awry.”
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.”
Disputes over an immigrant’s work authorization have arisen before, in part because many employers rely on a robust but flawed government system called E-Verify. The tool compares information entered by an employer from an employee’s documents with records available to Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
Experts say the system is generally accurate in terms of matching documents, but it doesn’t automatically notify an employer if an employee’s right to work is revoked after it has already been verified.
A 2021 Inspector General review concluded that until the government addresses E-Verify’s shortcomings, “it cannot ensure the system provides accurate employment eligibility results.”
