Jul. 13, 2025 By Adam Daly
A 31-year-old Peruvian asylum-seeker with developmental and auditory disabilities was held in immigration detention for more than a week, without contact with his attorneys or family, after being arrested by ICE following a routine court hearing in Manhattan.
Edwin Velasquez Munoz, who had been living in Long Island with his sister and cousin, his primary caregivers, was detained on July 2 after attending an immigration court hearing, according to his attorneys at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG).
“We were told for over a week he was in transit,” said Melissa Lim Chua, co-director of NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit. “Because he was in transit, we had to wait until he was somewhere permanent, essentially not in transit, before we could speak to him.”