“I want my husband back,” Matthew Marrero declared outside Middle Collegiate Church, located at 50 East 7th St. in the East Village, on Tuesday afternoon with tears in his eyes.
He stood clutching the hand of his attorney, surrounded by members of his congregation and supporters, as they rallied to demand that ICE free Marrero’s husband, Allan Dabrio Marrero, from their custody.
Marrero recounted the moment on Nov. 24 that he and his husband Allan Dabrio Marrero attended a green card interview on the 8th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, where masked ICE agents have been arresting immigrants attending court hearings for months. Without realizing it, Marrero’s beloved husband had missed a scheduled hearing in 2022 and had a deportation order against him.
“We were nervous because of the political climate, but confident that we had done everything right,” Matthew Marrero said. He soon found out doing the right thing would not matter.
“The interview itself was cold and hostile. The officer was rude, dismissive and wouldn’t even allow me to look at my husband when telling our love story. When I expressed how deeply I love him and found no flaws in him, I was scolded and told that no one is perfect,” he recalled.
Marrero said the couple were “blindsided” when the officer brought up the missed hearing in December 2022, and a judge had ordered him removed from the U.S. “This was the first time that we had heard this. My husband broke down in tears.”
According to Marrero, the federal officer conducting the interview originally told him that Allan would be permitted to leave the facility. However, they were guided through the hallways and handed over to ICE.
“We were ambushed. I had 30 seconds to say goodbye before they forced us apart,” Marrero recalled.
Alexandra Rizio, an attorney for Make the Road New York, blasted the detention, calling it a trap.
“He had not received notice of an immigration court hearing in 2022; he missed that hearing, and an immigration judge ordered him removed. He simply had no idea. Alan and Matthew didn’t know it, but on the day of their interview, they were walking into a trap,” Rizio charged. “Let me be clear, it didn’t have to be this way.”
Dozens of New Yorkers joined Marrero for the Dec. 10 rally, many of them donning purple ribbons in solidarity and holding photos of the couple. They chanted “Bring Allan home!” their hot breath steaming in the cold.
Allan has since been transferred to Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center in Newark, NJ, where his husband says he has faced misconduct and homophobia. He further charged that Allan has not been given his medication on a regular basis.
The couple’s friend and religious leader, Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, demanded Allan’s return while criticizing the way the Trump Administration is handling its immigration policies.
“There is no interviewer, there is no Plaza, there is no president who gets to say who is legal,” Ashcraft said.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams went further still, unabashedly comparing current ICE enforcement under Trump to Nazi Germany while calling on others to stand up in defense of policies.
“I need you to understand the Fourth Reich when you see it, I need you to understand authoritarianism when you see it. Silence will not provide your safety. It comes to everyone’s door at some point, and we are just asking people to step up now, before it comes,” Williams said. “People have asked and talked about what they would have done if they were there. You are here now. And the question is, what side are you on? You should be on Alan’s side.”
In addition to demanding Allan’s release, Make the Road New York attorneys say they are all fighting the battle legally in hopes of securing his release.
“I want my husband back,” Marrero said.
