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, and his family had no contact with him for nearly two months. Attorneys with Make the Road NY filed a habeas corpus petition on January 7, 2026 demanding ICE disclose his whereabouts; U.S. District Judge Sanket Bulsara ordered ICE and DHS on January 8 to disclose his current and prior locations, and officials called his attorney with his location the next day. He was found in a federal facility in New Mexico, having been held in 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.