ICE detains City Council staffer at routine immigration hearing; Menin, Mamdani demand immediate release – amNewYork

An ICE agent inside 26 Federal Plaza.

Photo by Dean Moses

A New York City Council worker was detained by ICE agents on Long Island on Monday, according to City Council Speaker Julie Menin.

The unnamed staffer, a data analyst for the Council, was taken into custody during what was supposed to be a routine immigration hearing in Bethpage. According to Menin, the employee had been legally permitted to stay in the U.S. until this October.

“We learned about this very disturbing situation late this afternoon when this employee called the City Council HR appointment for help and told them he had been detained,” Menin said during an emergency press conference she called on Jan. 12.

Making things worse, the City Council was initially unable to reach ICE to learn more about the detained employee. 

“We immediately reached out to the ICE facility office at the Bethpage facility, but shockingly, the phone number doesn’t even work. It says that the number is disconnected. There is no public information about how to reach someone who is being detained at the Bethpage facility,” Menin said. “There’s actually no way to reach out to this individual, and I just want to be clear, as Speaker of the City Council, I cannot even call this ICE detention center to collect information.”

Menin stated that she has since learned that the detained individual, who hails from Venezuela, has since been transferred to a detention center on Varick Street in Lower Manhattan. She also stressed that he was not only on a work visa, but also that he had never been arrested or convicted of a crime.

The speaker called the staffer’s detention by ICE an unprecedented “breach of liberty” and a further sign that no one is safe from harm from the federal agency.

“This is, I want to say, the first time this has ever happened to a City Council Employee, and it must be the only time that this ever happens. But unfortunately, this breach of liberty is hardly an exception,” Menin said. Given recent events across the nation, we’ve seen aggressive escalations by ICE that threaten the freedom and safety of every American. These escalations raise serious concerns about overreach.”

“We are looking at all legal options right now,” the speaker added.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement that he was “outraged” to learn of the City Council staffer’s detainment, and publicly demanded their release.

“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” Mamdani said. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, who has spent months himself railing against ICE operations in the Big Apple and immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, also spoke out against the stunning detainment.

“I want to be very clear: there is no indication that there is anything about this individual other than his immigration status that caused him to be arrested,” Goldman said. “Venezuela, as we know, is in massive turmoil. The President was just abducted and kidnapped by our United States government. There is a temporary, chaotic government. There is nothing safe and secure about that country.”

The analyst has worked for the City Council for about one year and, according to those with knowledge of the incident, made their only call to the City Council HR department for help. As of Monday evening, his colleagues had been unable to contact his family.

Queens City Council Member Tiffany Cabán called the City Council employee’s detainment a “kidnapping.” 

“A public servant was detained by ICE. Masked police kidnapping a City Council employee who works day in and day out for New Yorkers does not make us safe,” she said. “Trump’s deportation agenda was never about safety. It’s about scapegoating immigrants for problems caused by billionaires. Free our neighbors. Abolish ICE.”  

The staffer’s detention comes amid citywide and nationwide protests against ICE following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 as she attempted to drive away from masked, heavily armed ICE agents in Minneapolis. Immigration enforcement has been growing increasingly more aggressive, leading to unrest throughout the country.