Student shot inside Maryland high school, suspect in custody: Police

(NEW YORK) — A New York City Council employee was detained during a “routine” immigration appointment on Long Island on Monday, according to city officials, who called the incident an “egregious government overreach.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he is “outraged” by the worker’s arrest.

“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” he said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

The Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest late Monday, saying the employee is in the U.S. illegally and has an alleged criminal history that includes an arrest for assault. The agency did not provide additional details on the assault arrest.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin identified the employee in a statement Monday night as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, whom she alleged is a “criminal illegal alien from Venezuela.”

McLaughlin said Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa in 2017 that required him to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017.

“He had no legal right to be in the United States,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Under Secretary 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.”

The employee was detained by federal immigration officials during an appointment in Bethpage in Nassau County earlier Monday, according to NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin.

The speaker said the employee has legal authorization to remain in the country until this coming October.

Menin said the employee is a “central staff member working as a data analyst for approximately a year.”

The city council learned of his detainment Monday afternoon, when the employee used his one phone call to contact the council’s human resources department for help and said he had been detained, according to Menin.

“DHS confirmed that this employee had gone in for a routine court appointment and was nevertheless detained. They provided no other basis for his detainment,” Menin said during a press briefing on Monday. “On the contrary, he was a city council employee who is doing everything right. He went to the court when he was asked.”

Menin said the city council is demanding the return of the employee, whom she did not identify, citing privacy concerns.

Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman said the employee is of Venezuelan descent and is a “law-abiding immigrant with work authorization.”

“I want to be very clear: There is no indication that there’s anything about this individual other than his immigration status that caused him to be arrested,” he said during Monday’s press briefing.

DHS said the staffer was not authorized to work in the U.S.

The employee has been transferred to a detention center in Manhattan, according to Menin. She said the city council has been unable to reach his family members.

Goldman said his office has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We will continue to fight this,” he said. “We will continue to push for not only this person’s release, which is so obviously necessary, but for this immigration dragnet to stop.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James also called for the staffer’s immediate release, saying in a statement on X, “We will not stand for attacks on our city, its public servants, and its residents.”

In response to the incident, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This is exactly what happens when immigration enforcement is weaponized.”

“Detaining people during routine court appearances doesn’t make us safer,” she said in a statement on X. “It erodes trust, spreads fear, and violates basic principles of fairness.”

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(NEW YORK) — A jury has found the Alexander brothers guilty on all counts in their federal sex trafficking trial in New York City.

Jury deliberations began Thursday for the former real estate titans, Oren and Alon Alexander, 38-year-old twins, along with their brother, Tal Alexander, 39, who have denied sexually assaulting anyone or running a sex trafficking conspiracy, as prosecutors have charged. They pleaded not guilty.

Throughout the five-week trial, 11 women testified that they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers. At least eight of the women claimed they were drugged by one of the Alexanders. 

“These are chilling, reprehensible, and unacceptable acts,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement following the verdict. “We commend the victims for their courage in coming forward and testifying at the trial. They bravely overcame the pain of reliving the abuses inflicted upon them and, as a result, prevented others from becoming victims.”  

A spokesperson for the Alexander family called the verdict “deeply disappointing.”

“We believe there are substantial problems with the evidence and the way this case was presented,” the spokesperson, Juda S. Engelmayer, said in a statement. “The legal process does not end here. We will continue fighting every day until justice is done and the three brothers regain their freedom.”

An attorney for one of the brothers also vowed to keep fighting.

“There are a lot of avenues open to us. We’re not gonna stop,” Marc Agnifilo, who represented Oren Alexander, said outside court on Monday. “We believe in our client’s innocence and we’re not gonna stop fighting until we prevail. And we believe that we will one day prevail.”

The brothers’ federal sentencing has been set for Aug. 6.

Oren and Tal Alexander gained notoriety in New York’s luxury real estate market through their company, Alexander Group, and have been under federal investigation alongside Alon since late 2024.

They have been accused of luring women to nightclubs and parties, then drugging and sexually assaulting them.

In his closing statement, federal prosecutor Andrew Jones said there is “crushing evidence” that the brothers “masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators” who committed an “array of federal sex offenses.”

Jones recounted the graphic accounts of the alleged victims and said the wealthy brothers had a “playbook” luring women with exclusive parties, yachts and luxury travel so they could assault them.

“Once they had their victims where they wanted them, the defendants assaulted them using force, using drugs, or using both,” Jones said.

Then, the brothers allegedly bragged about their exploits in blog posts with titles like “It’s not rape if… you use her tears as lube” and “It’s not rape if… she secretly wants it.”

Jones told the jury the allegations are corroborated “by the sheer number of other victims who testified here — women who never met each other, who have each led different lives, in different professions, sometimes in different cities. But they had one horrific thing in common — they were each raped by these men. And they described near identical experiences of their assaults.”

During closing arguments, defense attorney Howard Srebnick conceded the brothers could be “obnoxious” and their conduct “inappropriate,” but he told the jury, “Nobody was being assaulted, nobody had been trafficked.”

Srebnick urged jurors to reject the government’s case against his client, Alon Alexander, insisting prosecutors failed to meet their burden of proof.

In her closing argument, Deanna Paul said the brothers “are not mobsters,” though sometimes they acted like “entitled a——-.”

A defense attorney for Tal Alexander, Paul argued that prosecutors have asked the jury to “connect dots that really aren’t there.”

In his summations, Agnifilo suggested to the jury that the victims in this case were dissatisfied with their encounters with the Alexanders, which motivated them to testify in this trial. 

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(NEW YORK) — Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, is making his first in-person court appearance on Thursday.

Robinson wore a button-down shirt and a tie, following a judge’s ruling to allow him to wear civilian clothing during pretrial hearings.

Robinson’s parents and brother are in the courtroom for Thursday’s ongoing hearing, according to defense attorneys. The judge said he’s planning to address three issues on Thursday, the first of which is closed to the media.

Kirk was shot and killed in the middle of his outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10. The 31-year-old was the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, and the Utah Valley event marked the first stop of his “The American Comeback Tour,” which invited students on college campuses to debate hot-button issues.

Robinson allegedly fled the scene of the shooting, prompting a massive manhunt. Robinson surrendered to authorities on the night of Sept. 11.

Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child.

Robinson made two previous court appearances, but the first was virtual and the second was audio-only.

He has not entered a plea. He could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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