New York City Council members are fuming over an immigration judge’s decision to deport a City Council employee who has been in immigration detention since January.
U.S. Immigration Judge Charles Conroy issued a ruling last week, rejecting Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez’s asylum application and ordering his removal from the country.
The decision sparked outrage from the city’s Socialist Democrats who have pressed for his release and backed a legal battle to free him.
Rubio Bohorquez, a 53-year-old Venezuelan national, worked as a data analyst for the City Council prior to being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ILLEGAL ALIEN EMPLOYED BY NYC COUNCIL
Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, an illegal alien from Venezuela with a criminal history, was being illegally employed by the New York City Council.
New York not only harbors criminals, they also HIRE them with our tax dollars.
Unreal pic.twitter.com/ZV1bXRHsc1
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 16, 2026
New York City officials said they would file an appeal and demanded Rubio Bohorquez’s immediate release until the legal proceedings are completed. The staffer has remained in ICE detention in Lower Manhattan.
In another blow dealt Monday, U.S. District Judge John Cronan denied his request for release from immigration detention.
The Trump-appointed judge in New York’s Southern District ruled his pending Temporary Protected Status didn’t shield him from arrest and deportation, The City reported.
In fact, Cronan agreed that Rubio Bohorquez no longer had TPS and denied his habeas corpus petition for release.
“The Court… concludes that, as a factual matter, Rubio’s TPS has been withdrawn,” Cronan wrote.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Rubio Bohorquez overstayed a 2017 tourist visa and has a prior assault arrest.
Not only that, despite being employed by the city, he lacks federal work authorization, DHS said.
The department called Conroy’s March 18 decision a “victory for the rule of law” and stood behind the agency’s records on Rubio Bohorquez.
“…An immigration judge ordered Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and an employee of New York’s City Council a final order of removal,” DHS said in a statement following last week’s decision. “ICE will work as quickly as possible to return this criminal to his home country.”
ICE agents arrested him in January during an interview for his asylum case in a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Bethpage, Long Island, The City reported.
His arrest triggered uproar from New York elected officials, who have called for his release.
Federal officials said Rubio Bohorquez entered the United States on a B2 tourist visa in 2017, and he was supposed to depart the same year. He was also previously arrested for assault in New York, DHS said.
Rubio Bohorquez’s legal team has maintained he cleared all background checks to work for the city—where it gets tricky is his pending TPS application.
His attorney, Roger Asmar, submitted paperwork to extend his Temporary Protected Status application for Venezuelans in mid-October, and his application is still pending, per The City.
However, his application is not likely to be extended until and unless the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in. TPS is an emergency asylum law the Trump administration is trying to end, but it has been held up by lawsuits, The Center Square reported.
The Trump administration argued they revoked Rubio Bohorquez’s TPS status when they announced an end to the program last year. The federal government also stopped reviewing TPS applications shortly after Trump took office.
“Everyone’s application is still pending, more or less,” Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National TPS Alliance, which is suing over the Trump Administration’s attempt to end the designation, told The City.
“Many Venezuelans never received a final decision on their pending TPS application,” Bansal added. For years, the standard practice had been TPS status shielded immigrants from arrest and deportation while the extension was pending.
Local officials, including socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, have rallied behind Rubio Bohorquez since his arrest and refuted DHS’s claims.
City officials have vowed to help Rubio Bohorquez fight the recent deportation ruling. The judge has given Rubio’s attorney until April 17 to file an appeal of the deportation order, CBS News reported.
They maintain Rubio Bohorquez had legal authorization to remain in the U.S., including the right to work.
“This is an affront to justice,” Mamdani shared in a post on X. “A dedicated public servant with legal authorization to remain in the country, Rafael showed up for a routine immigration appointment and, despite following the rules, he was detained and has now been held for months.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin condemned Conroy’s March 18 decision, calling it a “miscarriage of justice and wholly deplorable” and pledging to file an appeal, Fox News Digital reported.
Menin said Rubio Bohorquez had been cleared to remain in the country until October 2026. She blamed the immigration judge’s deportation order on a “technical error” related to his asylum application.
The New York Post reported, citing Menin, that Rubio Bohorquez reportedly had a missing signature on his papers. He was denied the opportunity to rectify it, despite his attorney’s offer to fix it within an hour.
“That is not justice. That is an extreme, cruel, inhumane outcome based on a technical procedural issue,” Menin said.
Menin demanded that Rubio Bohorquez’s case be heard by the deadline on April 17. She has also pushed for his immediate release until the legal proceedings are completed.
Menin called Judge Cronan’s ruling on Monday “disappointing” and a “deeply unjust outcome,” in a statement emailed to The City. Menin said he should be home while his immigration case proceeds, rather than “suffering a prolonged detention.”
