Happy Friday in New York City, where one prominent New Yorker has finally been freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, just as another is on the precipice of deportation.
Dylan Contreras, the high schooler who became New York’s first public school student to be detained by ICE agents, was released from custody on Tuesday after spending 10 months in detention at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. Contreras, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, had no criminal record.
Appearing alongside his mother at a press conference on Thursday, Contreras expressed gratitude for the people who advocated for his release, but urged continued vigilance for those still in detention.
“I want to thank everyone who doesn’t forget about the people that are still in there. Because as happy as I am that I’m free and I’m out here, I’m still sad that there are people still in there unjustly that deserve to be free as well,” Contreras said.
One of those people is Rafael Rubio, a former City Council staffer who immigrated to New York from Venezuela in 2017. Rubio, who was granted Temporary Protected Status and had no criminal history, has been detained in Metropolitan Detention Center since January — the same notorious prison that housed criminals like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Rubio is also on the verge of leaving ICE detention, but not to return to his home in New York City. Following months of legal battles during which prominent lawmakers like City Council speaker Julie Menin and Governor Kathy Hochul made direct appeals on Rubio’s behalf, a federal immigration judge denied Rubio’s asylum request and ordered him deported back to Venezuela.
Rubio’s final legal lifeline is an appeal case set for April 17. If unsuccessful, he will join a record-breaking exodus of immigrants from this city as the Trump administration continues its deportation machine.
Dissatisfied with parking enforcement, Community Board 6 recommended stripping the New York City Police Department of its ticketing responsibilities and returning the job to the city’s Department of Transportation.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani created a new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety as a first step toward his campaign commitment to shift some responsibilities involving 911 mental health crisis calls, hate crimes and other social issues from police to trained professionals.
A 25-year-old man was taken into custody after a high-speed pursuit that began in Hoboken, N.J., crossed the Goethals Bridge and ended in a multi-vehicle wreck on the Belt Parkway.
AG James sued to block the proposed Nexstar-Tegna broadcast merger, arguing that it will allow the combined company to extract higher fees from cable providers, costs that will likely be passed on to subscribers.
A Rikers correction officer pleaded guilty to fraudulent workers’ comp claims totaling $370,000.
Julian Brizzi, the operator behind DUMBO’s Celestine, will open a 3,000-square-foot Italian restaurant called Carina on Greenpoint’s waterfront with a slated 2027 opening.
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Our World In Photos
Photo: Nick Wass/AP
WASHINGTON — Sun Tzu once said, “The enemy cannot dunk if he cannot see”: Detroit Pistons forward Paul Reed (7) and Washington Wizards forward Tristan Vukcevic (00) battle for the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Washington.
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America’s secret weapon: failure
Image generated using ChatGPT.
Brooklyn can feel like the capital of national anxiety these days.
Scroll the headlines long enough, and it becomes easy to conclude that the country’s best days are behind it. But step back and look at the long arc of modern innovation, and a very different pattern emerges.
Over the past 250 years, an extraordinary share of the technologies that reshaped the world were developed or brought to scale in the United States: the lightning rod, the cotton gin, the steamboat, the telegraph, the telephone, the light bulb, the airplane, the transistor, the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, GPS, the smartphone, mRNA vaccines, artificial intelligence.
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The Mini
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Cartoon Sketchbook
By Arend van Dam
For the Road
Earth Day: Celebrate Earth Day at Fort Greene Park on Saturday for a family-friendly day dedicated to celebrating and caring for the Earth. Enjoy workshops, crafts, and games put together by community organizations and neighbors. For those who participate in more than eight of the activity stations, there’ll be a free prize. Learn more.
Happy Birthday to Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, who was born in Brooklyn in 1957!
On This Day in 1953, the Eagle reported: “A former Flatbush girl insisted that she was cool as a cucumber, even though she tripped and almost fell when she mounted the stage to accept her ‘Oscar’ as the best movie actress of 1952.”
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