ICE held Roosevelt, NY man incommunicado for two months, attorney says, disclosing his location only after a judge ordered it

Manuel Hernandez Zelada, 27, of Roosevelt, New York, was arrested by immigration agents on November 14, 2025 while walking to a deli to get food. He has mental health issues and needs medication, according to his attorney. His family had no contact with him for nearly two months -- an advocate described it as vanishing into ICE's "black hole." Attorney Paige Austin of Make the Road NY filed a habeas corpus petition on January 7, 2026 in the Eastern District of New York demanding ICE disclose his whereabouts. U.S. District Judge Sanket Bulsara ordered ICE and DHS on January 8 to tell the family where Hernandez Zelada was currently held and where else he had been held since his arrest, and to keep him in New York or New Jersey facilities while the case proceeded; Austin said immigration officials called her with his location the next day.

He was located in a federal facility in New Mexico, having been moved through four different facilities in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and New Mexico since his arrest, and spoke to his father by phone for the first time on January 10 -- despite the judge's order that he be kept in New York or New Jersey. Separately, ICE told the court through the U.S. Attorney's Office that Hernandez Zelada had agreed to voluntary deportation on January 2, a request the government approved January 5, before his location was ever disclosed to his family or counsel. Austin said Hernandez Zelada did not receive proper medical treatment while in custody. Advocates said a growing number of detainees are similarly disappearing into ICE's detention system and being held incommunicado for weeks amid the administration's escalating deportation campaign.