have been arresting immigrants attending court hearings for months<\/a>. Without realizing it, Marrero\u2019s beloved husband had missed a scheduled hearing in 2022 and had a deportation order against him.<\/p>\n\u201cWe were nervous because of the political climate, but confident that we had done everything right,\u201d Matthew Marrero said. He soon found out doing the right thing would not matter.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interview itself was cold and hostile. The officer was rude, dismissive and wouldn\u2019t even allow me to look at my husband when telling our love story. When I expressed how deeply I love him and found no flaws in him, I was scolded and told that no one is perfect,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Marrero said the couple were \u201cblindsided\u201d when the officer brought up the missed hearing in December 2022, and a judge had ordered him removed from the U.S. \u201cThis was the first time that we had heard this. My husband broke down in tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Marrero, the federal officer conducting the interview originally told him that Allan would be permitted to leave the facility. However, they were guided through the hallways and handed over to ICE.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC01502-copy.jpg\" "\\"Manhattan")
Matthew Marrero stood outside Middle Collegiate Church, located at 50 East 7th Street, on Tuesday afternoon with tears in his eyes. Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were ambushed. I had 30 seconds to say goodbye before they forced us apart,\u201d Marrero recalled.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Rizio, an attorney for Make the Road New York, blasted the detention, calling it a trap.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had not received notice of an immigration court hearing in 2022; he missed that hearing, and an immigration judge ordered him removed. He simply had no idea. Alan and Matthew didn\u2019t know it, but on the day of their interview, they were walking into a trap,\u201d Rizio charged. \u201cLet me be clear, it didn\u2019t have to be this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dozens of New Yorkers joined Marrero for the Dec. 10 rally, many of them donning purple ribbons in solidarity and holding photos of the couple. They chanted \u201cBring Allan home!\u201d their hot breath steaming in the cold.<\/p>\n
Allan has since been transferred to Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center in Newark, NJ, where his husband says he has faced misconduct and homophobia. He further charged that Allan has not been given his medication on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s friend and religious leader, Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, demanded Allan\u2019s return while criticizing the way the Trump Administration is handling its immigration policies.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no interviewer, there is no Plaza, there is no president who gets to say who is legal,\u201d Ashcraft said.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_6499-copy.jpg\" "\\"Manhattan")
\u201cThere is no interviewer, there is no Plaza, there is no president who gets to say who is legal,\u201d Ashcraft said.Photo by Dean Moses\n<\/p>\n
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams went further still, unabashedly comparing current ICE enforcement under Trump to Nazi Germany while calling on others to stand up in defense of policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need you to understand the Fourth Reich when you see it, I need you to understand authoritarianism when you see it. Silence will not provide your safety. It comes to everyone\u2019s door at some point, and we are just asking people to step up now, before it comes,\u201d Williams said. \u201cPeople have asked and talked about what they would have done if they were there. You are here now. And the question is, what side are you on? You should be on Alan\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to demanding Allan\u2019s release, Make the Road New York attorneys say they are all fighting the battle legally in hopes of securing his release.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI want my husband back,\u201d Marrero said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man and his East Village church are calling for the return of his husband after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8068,7624,2035,12241,2301,75,84,83,9,24,63,1069],"class_list":["post-66182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-26-federal-plaza","tag-east-village","tag-ice","tag-ice-detainment","tag-immigration","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_6430-copy-2.jpg\" "\\"Manhattan")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n