Mamdani denounces the detention of a New York City employee by ICE

New York.— New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani denounced on Monday afternoon the detention of a City Hall employee by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an event he described as “an attack against our democracy, our city and our values”. The man was identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Rafael Andrés Rubio Bohórquez, a 53-year-old Venezuelan citizen who had been working for approximately a year as a data analyst for the city. According to municipal authorities, Rubio Bohórquez was detained during a routine immigration appointment, despite having legal authorization to remain in the United States until October of this year. The New York City Council Speaker, Julie Menin, was the one who initially alerted about the arrest, after the employee himself called the City Hall’s human resources department to report that he had been arrested. In a subsequent press conference, Menin explained that Rubio Bohórquez was arrested at an ICE office in Bethpage, Nassau County, on Long Island, and later transferred to the Varick Street detention center in Manhattan. “This is an unsustainable situation. That, as president of the City Council, I cannot obtain direct information from ICE and must resort to the Department of Homeland Security is unacceptable”, said Menin, who indicated that this is the first time a member of the Council staff has been detained by immigration agents.

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For its part, the Department of Homeland Security maintained a different version. In a statement, spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin assured that Rubio Bohórquez was in the country illegally and had a criminal record, including an arrest for assault, without offering further details. According to the DHS, the Venezuelan entered the United States in 2017 with a B-2 tourist visa and was supposed to leave the country in October of that same year. “He had no legal right to be in the United States. Under Secretary Kristi Noem, criminal illegal immigrants are not welcome in this country,” McLaughlin indicated, underlining that federal authorities will continue with the arrests of people they consider in violation of immigration laws. The detention also generated reactions at the state level. New York Governor Kathy Hochul criticized the operation in a post on the social network X, warning that the application of immigration law “used as a weapon” erodes public trust and generates fear in communities. The arrest of Rubio Bohórquez occurs in a context of growing tension over federal immigration policies, following a weekend of protests in different cities across the country against ICE, motivated by the death of Renee Good at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis. The demonstrations extended to New York, where organizations and local leaders have intensified their criticisms.

Mamdani, who took office less than a month ago, reiterated his commitment to protect the city’s migrants from the federal government’s offensive. “When ICE attacks our neighbors across the United States, it is an attack against all of us”, said the mayor, while demanding the immediate release of the detained employee.