Jan. 13 (UPI) — The New York City Council employee detained by federal immigration agents during a routine court appearance on Monday was illegally in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which on Tuesday painted a drastically different portrait of the employee than the one presented by city officials a day earlier.
The detention of the man, identified by DHS as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, drew near immediate anger from New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who on Monday described the employee’s arrest as an example of the Trump administration’s government overreach.
She said the immigrant from Venezuela was legally able to work in the United States until October. She said that in January he signed an attestation that he has never been arrested. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said there was nothing about the employee that warranted his arrest other than that he is an immigrate from Venezuela.
The DHS on Tuesday refuted the characterization of Rubio Bohorquez, calling him a “criminal illegal alien” who overstayed his B-2 tourist visa in 2017, that required him to leave the country by Oct. 22 of that year.
The federal department also said he was previously arrested for assault in New York. No information about the alleged crime, nor if it led to a conviction, was made public.
“A criminal illegal alien with no authorization to work in the U.S. being employed by the New York City Council is shocking,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This takes sanctuary city to a whole new level.”
Goldman on Tuesday accused the DHS of lying. He said Rubio Bohorquez was authorized to work in the United States, as he was granted Temporary Protected Status. He also said Rubio Bohorquez cleared the standard background check conducted for all City Council employees.
TPS is an immigration program designed to prevent the deportation of immigrants to countries experiencing crises, such as armed conflict. It can be granted regardless of prior visa overstays. President Donald Trump has moved to terminate TPS protections for several countries, including Venezuela. TPS protections granted to Venezuelans are to expire in October.
“Department of Homeland Security spokesperson ‘Tricia from Ohio’ is back to doing what she does best: gaslighting the American people,” Goldman said in a statement. “Her statement that the staffer ‘had no legal right to be in the United States’ is a bald-faced lie. In truth, the NYC Council employee was lawfully in the United States and properly authorized to work here.”
He called on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to ask Trump about the importance of due process and the concept of innocent until proven guilty.
“An arrest is simply not a basis for deportation,” he said.
Trump was convicted last year in New York on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair from the public in the run-up to the 2016 election. He has denied wrongdoing in the case. He was also facing several other criminal cases concerning alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss when he was re-elected president in 2024.
The New York Legal Assistance Group filed a habeas petition Monday night concerning Rubio Bohorquez. On Tuesday, Menin and Goldman said in a joint statement that it was preventing the Department of Homeland Security from removing Rubio Bohorquez from New York State until his petition is resolved.
They have yet to be able to contact Rubio Bohorquez, she said Tuesday, but they were working to contact his legal counsel.