How a New York City Council Staffer Disappeared During a Routine Appointment

He showed up because the state required it. Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, 53 years old, reported properly for his appointment in Bethpage, Long Island – as instructed, without delay, without resistance. Hours later, he was in custody. Arrested by ICE agents, taken out of a public building, with no apparent new allegation. No arrest warrant, no judicial order, no explanation on site. What remained was an empty chair in the New York City Council office – and a shocked city leadership that went public.

“A routine check in appointment suddenly went completely off the rails. He was arrested and taken to a detention and removal center. He is a City Council staff member and did everything right. He went to court when he was required to do so. I want to make this clear: He has a valid residence permit and work authorization in this country – through October 2026.”

Rubio Bohorquez is no unknown figure in city administration. For about a year he has worked as a data analyst for the City Council. The city points to valid documents: residence authorization, work authorization – time limited, but valid until October 2026. For Council President Julie Menin, the arrest is a clear case of abuse of power. She spoke of a federal overreach, without legal basis, without transparency. And with a detail that feels almost symbolic: The phone number for the responsible ICE office did not work. The automated message stated flatly that the number was not in service, something we are encountering more and more frequently.

While New York tried to protect its employee, Washington pushed back. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security stated that Rubio Bohorquez was not legally in the country. He was accused of having entered in 2017 on a tourist visa and remained – allegedly without work authorization. The department also publicly named his name, age, and origin. For Secretary Kristi Noem, someone like him is “a criminal illegal immigrant” – and therefore a target of enforcement action.

According to the city, the opposite is true. Rubio Bohorquez had never been arrested, had provided written assurance that he had no criminal record, and had retained a lawyer. He was not someone who disappeared, but part of public life – with an official job, a regular salary, a city email account. That even this status no longer offers protection is setting off alarms. Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks of an attack on the city’s institutions. Congressman Dan Goldman accuses the federal government of deliberately striking where people trust the legal system – on court days, at check in appointments, among those who follow the rules.

Rubio Bohorquez was one of them. That he was reachable at all is due to a single phone call. The one call he was allowed to make from detention, he used to contact human resources. Only then did the case become public. Since then, he has been held in a detention facility in Lower Manhattan. The city is fighting for his release. Comptroller Mark Levine calls it a scandal. Attorney General Letitia James demands the man be released immediately. This is not the first case of its kind. The second Trump administration has begun to turn the system deliberately against those who submit to it. It does not always take new laws to shift the line. Sometimes a broken phone number is enough so that no one knows anymore where to turn.