Anger Builds Over Arrest Of Venezuelan Council Staffer As New Details Emerge

By Gwynne Hogan, The City

Jan. 14, 2026

Anger among New York elected officials grew Tuesday as more details about a City Council staffer’s arrest a day earlier began to emerge.

On Monday evening the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrest of council staffer Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez who worked for the past year as a data analyst in personnel services, according to representatives of the council.

Bohorquez had filed a timely asylum application, his attorneys wrote in a writ of habeas corpus filed in federal court late Monday night, in which he was referred to only by his initials. He had reported to the Bethpage Asylum office in Long Island for an interview about that application when he was served a Notice to Appear in Immigration Court and then arrested by ICE agents at the asylum office.

Bohorquez had previously qualified for Temporary Protected Status and had work authorization, his attorneys said in legal filings, but it wasn’t clear right away if his work authorization expired or if it was active through October of this year, which is the deadline for some Venezuelans who had temporary protected status.

A spokesperson for New York Legal Assistance Group, which is representing Bohorquez in his federal habeas case seeking his immediate release, declined to comment further.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, said he had initially entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2017 and overstayed it. In a statement sent out Monday evening, McLaughlin said he had an arrest for assault on his record and had no current work authorization.

Those remarks were rebuffed by Congressmember Dan Goldman (D-Manhattan), whose office had been called in by the council when they heard of the staffer’s arrest. The council also said the staffer had passed the standard required background check before his hiring, which likely would have revealed a past assault arrest.

“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 Tuesday.

“I urge Secretary Noem to ask her boss about the importance of due process in this country, including the fundamental concept of innocent until proven guilty. An arrest is simply not a basis for deportation.”

A spokesperson for the NYPD said Bohorquez had no arrest record in New York City.

DHS didn’t return a request for additional comment on his TPS or work authorization, or the allegation of an arrest.

Bohorquez, like many Venezuelans living in the U.S., had been thrust into legal uncertainty after years of living legally in this country through TPS, a protection against deportation used for countries the U.S. deemed too dangerous and unstable to return to. The Trump administration has moved to end TPS for many countries, with the TPS designation Bohorquez qualified for expiring last fall.

The uncertainty for Venezuelans comes even as the Trump administration arrested President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a controversial covert operation, bringing them back to New York City for federal prosecution earlier this month.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Venezuelans losing their TPS as “an opportunity to apply for refugee status,” causing massive confusion among Venezuelans here. Refugee status is something you qualify for before you enter the U.S., and the Trump administration has set the lowest cap on refugees entering the country since the program was established in 1980.

Instead, Bohorquez began the process of requesting asylum, which is what he was working towards at the time of his arrest Monday.

Members of the council’s union, the Association of Legislative Employees, rallied outside Varick Street immigration court Tuesday in support of their colleague, demanding his immediate release.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin initially said he had been arrested at immigration court on Long Island and was being held at the Varick Street building, though attorneys have since confirmed he’s at a detention facility in New York State, but have declined to say which one. People arrested in New York City and parts of the surrounding region are often taken to holding cells inside 26 Federal Plaza, not Varick Street.

“I am here alongside with my colleagues to demand the immediate release of our staffer, an immediate release of a public servant who is here to make the city better while they make their lives better,” said newly-elected Councilmember Kayla Santosuosso.

“This is not about safety. This is not about a better life for any of us,” she said. “This is about fear. This is about division, and this is about tearing people apart.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.