Category: Wires

NEW YORK — A New York City Council employee detained in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, according to a court petition seeking his release.

Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez was arrested Monday at a scheduled immigration check-in, enraging city leaders and drawing protesters Tuesday to the Manhattan federal building where he is being held.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Rubio Bohorquez had long overstayed a tourist visa, had once been arrested for assault and “had no legal right to be in the United States.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin disputed that, telling reporters that Rubio Bohorquez, a data analyst for the city legislative body, was legally authorized to work in the U.S. until October.

Menin, a Democrat, said the Council employee signed a document as part of his employment confirming that he had never been arrested and cleared the standard background check conducted for all applicants.

The court petition, reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press, said Rubio Bohorquez — identified in the document as R.A.R.B. — had always been seeking asylum and was arrested at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum office in Bethpage, on Long Island.

Menin called it a regular check-in that “quickly went awry.”

The document, known as a petition for writ of habeas corpus, said Rubio Bohorquez has no criminal record — no arrests, charges or convictions. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Friday.

ICE confirmed Rubio Bohorquez’s name. Menin said she wanted to protect his identity and referred to him only as a Council employee.

“We are doing everything we can to secure his immediate release,” Menin told reporters Monday. She decried the arrest as “egregious government overreach.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, said he was “outraged” by what he called “an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, referenced Rubio Bohorquez’s arrest in her state of the state speech on Tuesday, asking: “Is this person really one of the baddest of the bad? Is this person really a threat?”

Hochul added: “I will do whatever it takes to protect New Yorkers from criminals, but people of all political beliefs are saying the same thing about what we’ve seen lately: Enough is enough.”

Menin said officials were attempting to reach Rubio Bohorquez’s family and obtain contact information for his immigration lawyer.

The nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group filed the habeas petition on Rubio Bohorquez’s behalf. The organization’s president and CEO, Lisa Rivera, said it represents dozens of people who have been wrongfully detained by ICE and hundreds who are following immigration procedures in hopes of staying in the U.S.

“This staffer, who chose to work for the city and contribute his expertise to the community, did everything right by appearing at a scheduled interview, and yet ICE unlawfully detained him,” Rivera said in a statement.

According to ICE, Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. in 2017 on a B2 tourist visa and was required to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017. He has been employed by the City Council for about a year, Menin said. His position pays about $129,315 per year, according to city payroll data.

“He had no work authorization,” ICE said in a statement confirming Rubio Bohorquez’s arrest. The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said that under Secretary Kristi Noem “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our law, we will find you and we will arrest you.”

Several dozen people protested Tuesday outside the Greater New York Federal Building, where Rubio Bohorquez was being held. Some carried signs that said “Abolish ICE” and “No Human Is Illegal.”’

Venezuela, whose former President Nicolás Maduro was seized Jan. 3 by U.S. forces, has been roiled for years by violence and economic instability. Nearly 8 million people have fled the South American nation since 2014, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration ended Temporary Protected Status that had been allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. It wasn’t clear from court papers whether Rubio Bohorquez had been a part of that program.

Disputes over an immigrant’s work authorization have arisen before, in part because many employers rely on E-Verify. The system compares information provided by employees with records available to the government but doesn’t automatically notify an employer if an employee’s right to work is later revoked.

GUANARE, Venezuela — Freedom came too late for Edilson Torres.

The police officer was set to be buried Tuesday in his humble, rural hometown following his death in a Venezuelan prison, where he was held incommunicado since his December detention on what his family said were politically motivated accusations. Hours ahead of the ceremony, his children, neighbors, police officers, friends and dozens others gathered to pay their respects.

Torres, 51, died of a heart attack on Saturday, just as his family awaited the government’s promised release of prisoners following the U.S. capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro. His death comes as scores of families like his — who once hesitated to approach advocacy groups — are now coming forward to register their loved ones as “political prisoners.”

Alfredo Romero, director of the organization Foro Penal, a non-governmental organization that tracks and advocates for Venezuelan prisoners, said the group has received a “flood of messages” since last week from families.

“They didn’t report it out of fear, and now they’re doing it because, in a way, they feel that there is this possibility that their families will be freed,” Romero said. “They see it as hope, but more importantly, as an opportunity.”

The head of Venezuela’s national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said last week that a “significant number” of Venezuelan and foreigners imprisoned in the country would be released as a gesture to “seek peace” following the explosions that rocked the South American nation in the early hours of Jan. 3.

The U.S. and Venezuela’s opposition have long demanded the widespread release of detained opposition figures, activists and journalists, whom they claim are used as a political tool by the ruling party.

Venezuela’s government denies that there are prisoners unjustly detained, accusing them of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government.

‘Pure and real kidnapping’

Following Torres’ death, Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said in a statement that the case had been assigned to a terrorism unit and “was linked to criminal activities detected by state security agencies.” He did not offer any details, but the vague language tracks with past accusations leveled against real or perceived government critics.

Romero explained that of the roughly 300 families who reached out, about 100 cases so far have been confirmed as politically motivated. Most of those reported over the past few days, he said, once worked for Venezuela’s military. That is on top of more than 800 people that the organization says continue to be detained for political reasons in Venezuela.

As of Tuesday morning, Foro Penal had confirmed the release of 56 prisoners. While Venezuela’s government reported a higher figure of 116, it did not identify them, making it impossible to determine whether those freed were behind bars for political or other reasons.

“My little brother, my little brother,” Emelyn Torres said between sobs after his casket, cloaked in Venezuela’s flag, arrived at her home for the wake. A few feet away, their grandmother nearly fainted as dozens of people crammed into the living room to pay their respects.

Hours earlier, as a minivan transported the body of her brother 267 miles from the capital, Caracas, to Guanare, Torres learned that other men linked to the WhatsApp group that led to her brother’s arrest had just been released from prison. She wailed. He did not live long enough to walk free.

Among those who have been released are: human rights attorney Rocío San Miguel, who immediately relocated to Spain; Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado’s 2024 presidential campaign; and Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and presidential candidate.

Italian businessman Marco Burlò, who was released from prison Monday, told reporters outside an international airport in Rome Tuesday that he was kept isolated throughout his detention, which he characterized as a “pure and real kidnapping.”

“I can’t say that I was physically abused, but without being able to talk to our children, without the right to defense, without being able to speak to the lawyer, completely isolated, here they thought that I might have died,” he said.

A rare moment of hope

The small set of releases over the past few days continues to fuel criticisms by families, human rights watchdogs at the United Nations and U.S. politicians, who have accused the government of not following through on their word of a wider release.

But the rapid political shifts in the Latin American nation and the distant possibility of release simultaneously marked a rare moment of hope for many families who have spent years wondering if their loved ones would ever be freed.

Part of the reason that Romero said he believed so many people had not come forward is the government’s ongoing crackdown on dissent since Venezuela’s tumultuous 2024 election, which Maduro claimed to have won despite ample credible evidence to the contrary.

As mass street protests broke out, authorities said they detained more than 2,000 people. In the month after July elections, Venezuela’s government passed a law – dubbed the “anti-NGO law” by critics – making it easier for the government to criminalize human rights groups.

That had a chilling effect, Romero said, making families hesitant to come forward — until now.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has made good on its pledge to label three Middle Eastern branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, imposing sanctions on them and their members in a decision that could have implications for U.S. relationships with allies in the region.

The Treasury and State departments announced the actions Tuesday against the Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they said pose a risk to the United States and American interests.

The State Department designated the Lebanese branch a foreign terrorist organization, the most severe of the labels, which makes it a criminal offense to provide material support to the group. The Jordanian and Egyptian branches were listed by Treasury as specially designated global terrorists for providing support to Hamas.

“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.”

Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were mandated last year under an executive order signed by Trump to determine the most appropriate way to impose sanctions on the groups, which U.S. officials say engage in or support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm the United States and other regions.

Bessent wrote in a post on X that the Muslim Brotherhood “has a longstanding record of perpetrating acts of terror, and we are working aggressively to cut them off from the financial system.” He added that the Trump administration will “deploy the full scope of its authorities to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat terrorist networks wherever they operate in order to keep Americans safe.”

Muslim Brotherhood leaders have said they renounce violence, and the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Egypt and Lebanon denounced their inclusion.

“The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood categorically rejects this designation and will pursue all legal avenues to challenge this decision which harms millions of Muslims worldwide,” it said in a statement, denying any involvement in or support for terrorism.

The Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiya (the Islamic Group), said in a statement that it is “a licensed Lebanese political and social entity that operates openly and within the bounds of the law” and that the U.S. decision “has no legal effect within Lebanon.”

Trump’s executive order had singled out the chapters in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, noting that a wing of the Lebanese chapter had launched rockets on Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel that set off the war in Gaza. Leaders of the group in Jordan have provided support to Hamas, the order said.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 but was banned in that country in 2013. Jordan announced a sweeping ban on the Muslim Brotherhood in April.

Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, said some allies of the U.S., including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, would likely be pleased with the designation.

“For other governments where the brotherhood is tolerated, it would be a thorn in bilateral relations,” including in Qatar and Turkey, he said. While the Turkish ruling party has been associated with members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the past, the government of Qatar has denied any relationship with it.

Brown also said a designation on the chapters may have effects on visa and asylum claims for people entering not just the U.S. but also Western European countries and Canada.

“I think this would give immigration officials a stronger basis for suspicion, and it might make courts less likely to question any kind of official action against Brotherhood members who are seeking to stay in this country, seeking political asylum,” he said.

Trump, a Republican, weighed whether to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in 2019 during his first term in office. Some prominent Trump supporters, including right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, have pushed his administration to take aggressive action against the group.

Two Republican-led state governments — Florida and Texas — designated the group as a terrorist organization this year.