On the afternoon of January 2, a 26-year-old Guatemalan building employee on a moped was pulled over by NYPD officers in South Brooklyn in a visitors cease that would form the remainder of his life.
The NYPD cease set off a series of occasions that has left J.I.T, who had been dwelling in the US for a decade, locked up inside an ICE detention heart in Orange County for eight months and counting as he fights for his launch and the suitable to remain in the US.
THE CITY is referring to the person as J.I.T., the initials utilized in federal court docket filings, on account of his ongoing immigration case.
As a result of J.I.T was fingerprinted throughout his visitors cease arrest, a report was transmitted routinely from the NYPD to a statewide database, and from there to the FBI’s nationwide database — the place it was crosschecked towards ICE’s database of all recognized immigrants who aren’t residents.
On February 2, a month later and days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, ICE brokers got here knocking on his door, taking J.I.T. away in handcuffs. His arrest was a part of an interagency sweep throughout New York Metropolis that the Trump administration described on the time as focusing on immigrants who’re “violent criminals.”
The incident, advocates say, highlights how minor infractions can increase a crimson flag for immigration authorities even in sanctuary cities like New York, the place outright coordination on immigration enforcement is banned.
“I know we’ve committed an error, we’re here illegally, I understand that,” Erwin, J.I.T.’s 29-year-old brother instructed THE CITY in Spanish. THE CITY can also be withholding Erwin’s full title as a result of he fears authorities retaliation. “But they’re going to shut him up for eight or nine months, just because of a moped. It’s not just.”
The NYPD had hundreds of mopeds, scooters and bikes impounded at their Purple Hook, Brooklyn facility, July 14, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
On the time of the Jan. 2 cease, J.I.T. had been using on an unregistered moped, with out insurance coverage and with a pretend plate, NYPD officers alleged on the time. He was pulled over in the kind of visitors cease that later soared beneath Mayor Eric Adams, as his administration cracked down on the unregistered bikes and mopeds which have proliferated on metropolis streets, confiscating and typically then destroying hundreds of them.
The officers wrote J.I.T. 4 violations, for driving on a suspended license and working the motorbike with out insurance coverage, court docket information reviewed by THE CITY present. In addition they arrested him for “possession of a forged instrument in the third degree,” a felony cost, citing the pretend license plate.
J.I.T. was handcuffed, fingerprinted, held at Brooklyn’s 62nd Precinct for hours, taken to central reserving after which arraigned in Brooklyn Felony Courtroom, an ordeal that lasted nearly two days, his brother recalled.
“One hour, two hours, nothing, the next day, nothing,” Erwin recalled. After his launch, J.I.T. determined to desert the moped with the police as a substitute of reclaiming it. “‘Better I just leave it there. I don’t want to have any more problems,’” Erwin stated J.I.T. determined on the time.
An ICE ‘Encounter’
However J.I.T.’s issues didn’t finish there. By the top of January, new Division of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem got here to New York for a dramatic day of raids focusing on what she stated had been “violent criminals, including a ringleader of Tren De Aragua.”
J.I.T. was one of many individuals arrested in that first wave of ICE raids. Federal brokers got here pounding on his condo door in South Brooklyn the place he lived with three different brothers early on a Sunday morning in February.
Whereas J.I.T. had pending felony costs on the time of his ICE arrest, none of these would have made him a “violent criminal.” Along with the costs from his visitors cease, he additionally confronted petty larceny and felony possession of stolen property within the fifth diploma costs from a 2017 arrest for allegedly choosing up a pockets he present in a bodega. Each instances have since been dismissed and sealed, Kings County court docket information reviewed by THE CITY present.
As a result of the cast instrument cost is a misdemeanor, requiring an individual’s fingerprints by state legislation, J.I.T.’s arrest was flagged for ICE as a part of a routine and automatic course of that occurs hundreds of occasions a month.
When the NYPD fingerprints somebody, that data is uploaded to a statewide database that routinely checks for New York State warrants and felony historical past and likewise crosschecks them with the FBI’s nationwide database for felony historical past in different states, sending a report again to the NYPD inside minutes. In querying that nationwide database, the FBI additionally logs a report of the arrest, which is then run towards ICE’s database of immigrants.
In J.I.T.’s case, ICE grew to become conscious of his arrest 4 days later, on Jan. 6, in keeping with ICE “encounter” knowledge obtained by the Deportation Knowledge Venture by a Freedom of Info Act Request. Along with a report of precise arrests, “encounters” embody a report of each time ICE matches FBI reserving data with somebody in its database of immigrants, in keeping with the Deportation Knowledge Venture.
Between January and July, THE CITY was in a position to establish 246 different examples just like J.I.T.’s, the place an digital ICE encounter within the New York Metropolis space occurred earlier than that particular person’s arrest by the federal immigration enforcement company. That was practically thrice the variety of individuals arrested that manner throughout the identical interval final yr.
Most of these information had no particulars in regards to the felony instances of individuals detained, and the info don’t seem to trace pending felony costs, solely convictions. For the thirty % that did have convictions detailed, the commonest one was “disorderly conduct” adopted by driving beneath the affect of liquor, with 14 and 11 convictions respectively, adopted by eight assault convictions.
In the course of the first few months of Trump’s second time period, knowledge reveals total ICE arrests targeted on individuals with pending costs or felony convictions, like J.I.T.. However because the administration widened its dragnet, ICE is more and more arresting individuals who haven’t any prior interplay with legislation enforcement.
Janine Kava, a spokesperson for the state’s Division of Felony Justice Companies, which oversees the statewide fingerprint database, stated the workplace “has no role in civil immigration enforcement.”
“State law outlines when law enforcement agencies are required to send fingerprints of individuals arrested to DCJS,” she stated. “Upon receiving arrest prints, we are statutorily required to provide the arresting agency with any New York State criminal history records and/or warrants, and/or any out-of-state records and/or warrants.”
A spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety and ICE hasn’t returned THE CITY’s request for touch upon its priorities for deportation.
Sarah Vendzules, the director of the Immigrant Justice Group at The Authorized Help Society, stated low-level arrests triggering ICE enforcement earlier than the particular person had been convicted had been uncommon earlier than this yr. Now she stated, the company is “bragging about rounding up all these criminals, and so it doesn’t really matter to them if it’s somebody who bought a motorcycle with a fake plate, as long as they can say he’s a criminal.”
The NYPD didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about its efforts to crackdown unlicensed bikes or its fingerprinting insurance policies.
Albert Fox Cahn, director of the Surveillance Expertise Oversight Venture, stated it could be time for New York state to rethink its fingerprinting insurance policies.
“In this sort of environment, given the weaponization of federal law enforcement even going beyond ICE, there’s a real question of whether it’s worth it to run a warrants check for someone who’s arrested for a petty offense,” he stated. “Cops may claim that the sky falls if you don’t, check every person for a warrant, but the cost is increasingly intolerable.”
A spokesperson for the NYPD didn’t return a request for touch upon its fingerprinting practices.
‘It’s Me They’re Wanting For’
J.I.T. arrived in New York Metropolis after crossing the border alone when he was 17-year-old again in 2016. He was the second youngest in a big household of seven siblings from the Maya Okay’iche indigenous neighborhood within the small metropolis of Nauhala, Guatemala, however the first to make his technique to the US, decided to discover a higher life for himself.
Whereas J.I.T. initially dreamed of finding out, with nobody to help him, he began working instantly, first as a dishwasher in a restaurant, Erwin stated.
J.I.T. was quickly making sufficient to start out sending a refund to his older siblings and oldsters in Guatemala, inspiring 5 different siblings to make the journey over the course of Trump’s first presidency. “That motivated all of us,” Erwin stated.
As ICE brokers banged on J.I.T’s door within the predawn hours of Feb. 2, the household cowered inside debating what to do, Erwin recalled.They tried to name a lawyer however couldn’t get one on the road. They requested for a warrant, however ICE brokers didn’t present one. The brokers threatened to interrupt down the door, although they made no transfer to take action. The standoff lasted for hours with the brokers ultimately leaving the constructing and ready in automobiles parked exterior.
After round six hours J.I.T. determined to give up, involved about jeopardizing the remainder of his household. Along with his three brothers, a sister and neighbor had additionally been staying the night time, visiting to mourn the latest dying of a brother-in-law.
“I don’t want to get you all in trouble. And it’s me they’re looking for,” he instructed the household, Erwin recalled.
The final time Erwin noticed his brother, J.I.T. had his arms raised within the air as he was swarmed by the awaiting officers. They put him in handcuffs and shackled his ft collectively, loading right into a automotive and driving away, as his siblings watched from the condo window in horror.
J.I.T.’s extended detention has rocked the tight-knit siblings, their little brother, who’d impressed all his siblings to hunt a greater life on this nation, caged for months without end. Due to their very own immigration statuses the siblings worry going to go to him in Orange County, although it’s only a brief drive from New York Metropolis. Attorneys with the Authorized Help Society are representing J.I.T. in his asylum case, which is at the moment on attraction, in addition to in a federal lawsuit searching for his launch.
Over telephone calls with J.I.T., the siblings try to maintain up his spirits, and regardless of his eight months behind bars, he nonetheless hasn’t given up on the prospect of a greater future right here, Erwin stated. “He still has hope that he’ll be able to stay.”Haidee Chu contributed to this report.
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