This week, on Monday (January 12th), a city council employee who was arrested when reporting to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Bethpage, Long Island was confirmed to be a Venezuelan. Due to President Trump’s announcement at the end of last year to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 300,000 Venezuelans, this individual has been labeled as an “illegal immigrant”.
According to the New York Post, 53-year-old Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez arrived in the U.S. in 2017 and was granted TPS. Internal ICE records show that Bohorquez’s TPS and work permit were terminated on November 20th last year.
Although there are documents proving that Bohorquez applied for an extension on January 17th last year, allowing him to legally stay until October 2026, and passed the city council’s pre-employment background check. However, ICE does not acknowledge this and also noted that this person was previously arrested for third-degree assault, leading ICE to consider him as a “criminal illegal immigrant”.
Currently, the city council and lawyers are actively working to rescue Bohorquez.
Governor Hochul also voiced support for this staff member in her State of the State address on Tuesday.
“Yesterday, they arrested an analyst in City Hall, an analyst with a valid work permit,” the governor said. “They are not the kind of irredeemable bad people, they are just working diligently. Are such people really a threat? Please.”