A New York City Council employee who’d been detained by federal immigration officials since January is free — but whether he’ll be able to stay in the country long-term remains to be seen.
Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez was working as a data analyst for the City Council when agents arrested him at an immigration court appointment on Long Island for allegedly overstaying his visa.
His case drew outrage from elected officials across the city and state, especially from Council Speaker Julie Menin, who helped coordinate efforts to bring him home. City officials have previously said he was authorized to live and work in the U.S. through October of this year.
Rubio was granted asylum in immigration court on May 27 and freed on a $5,000 bond on June 19, but the federal government has since filed an appeal challenging that asylum status. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency would continue to fight for his removal.
Still, Rubio and the team of people who had worked to get him out of detention expressed joy and relief at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
“It's so great to me to feel that I'm part of this — a city that advocates for people in my situation,” Rubio said, at times choking up. “ I'm just glad that I'm having a chance to fight my case while in freedom.”
Menin called Rubio's release a moment of “unmitigated joy” after his 158 days in custody, during which she said he did not receive adequate medical care and even spent two weeks in solitary confinement. Court documents show he was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey. The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied detainees’ claims of inadequate care at its facilities, including Delaney Hall.
“Even as we celebrate your release, we're going to recommit ourselves to this fight because sadly it's not over,” Menin said.
The Department of Homeland Security said Rubio entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa in 2017 and did not leave in October of that year when he was supposed to. A City Council spokesperson said he had been awarded temporary protected status, which was extended to Venezuelans in 2021 due to the humanitarian, political and economic crises in the country.
President Donald Trump announced early last year that he would revoke TPS for Venezuelans, and the Supreme Court ultimately upheld his decision. However, guidance on the the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website appears to indicate Rubio’s work authorization should be valid through October of this year because of when he was hired.
In March, a federal judge ordered Rubio be removed from the United States, according to the City Council. At the time, Menin vowed to fight the decision, which described as tied to a “procedural issue” related to his asylum application.
A DHS spokesperson also said that Rubio had been arrested on a charge of assault in 2023, but court documents show those charges were dismissed.
“You were detained, you were humiliated publicly, vilified, slandered. That is a lot for one person to endure,” Karla Ostolaza, the managing director of the immigration practice at the Bronx Defenders, said on Saturday. The organization provided an attorney for Rubio. “But you never lost faith in yourself and in the truth of your situation, and you press on with incredible courage.”
