A Venezuelan data analyst for the New York City Council was abruptly seized Monday morning by agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a routine immigration check-in at a federal building in Bethpage, according to Speaker Julie Menin.
The employee is legally authorized to work in the United States until October and isn’t a criminal, Menin said at an emergency news conference late Monday at City Hall. She declined to release the employee’s identity except to say he worked for the council’s main office, known as the central staff. The office’s task include analyzing and drafting legislation.
“A regular check in quickly went awry. He was taken in and he was removed to a detention center,” Menin said, adding that the council learned the employee had been detained after he used his one phone call to call the council’s human resources office seeking help.
The man, who as of late Monday was jailed at the federal building on Varrick Street in southern Manhattan, is likely on a path to be removed from America “unless it can be stopped,” U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said at the news conference.
Menin said when she called the listed phone number for the Bethpage facility, she couldn’t get through. The council so far has been unable to reach the employee’s family or immigration attorney. The council demands the man’s return, she said.
“I’m an elected official running a body and I cannot contact a federal facility? What kind of accountability or transparency is that? Can you imagine what it’s like for a family whose loved one goes missing? What are his family members going through right now?” Menin said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani tweeted criticism of the detention.
“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. 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”
Menin eventually reached ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which provided little information except that the council employee would likely be moved to a third location to be detained.
No one from ICE or Homeland Security could be reached for comment late Monday.
Immigration officers under President Donald Trump, under similar circumstances “try to whisk them down to Texas or Louisiana,” Goldman said, where administration officials “have pretty much total control over the immigration judges.”
Goldman noted that some of the judges — who all work for the president and his administration — have been fired for ruling in favor of immigrants.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.