A Bensonhurst church leader and several of his neighbors were arrested by federal immigration agents early on Thursday morning, local officials said.
Deacon Sebastian Renoj Barreno, an immigrant and longtime member and leader at Jovenes Cristianos in southern Brooklyn, was detained outside his Bay Parkway apartment building, according to local pastor Erick Salgado and Council Member Susan Zhuang.
“Yesterday, ICE agents came and they were outside just waiting for everyone who was walking out of this building,” Salgado said. “They took like six or seven members of our community, including … Sebastian Renojo Barreno, who has been a leader of my church for over 18 years.”
Barreno does not have a criminal record, Salgado and Zhuang said. The Council Member later said he had been detained “on a technicality related to immigration status.” She did not share where Barreno had immigrated from, or how long he has been in the U.S.
ICE did not return request for comment.
Salgado immediately got in touch with Zhuang’s office, who helped him find legal representation. A lawyer is preparing to file a case to ensure Barreno gets “due process,” Zhuang said.
Less than 48 hours after his arrest, Barreno had already been moved to a detention facility in New Jersey, Salgado said.
“They’re working very fast,” he added.
ICE activity and arrests have skyrocketed in Zhuang’s district, which includes large parts of Sunset Park and Dyker Heights and parts of Bath Beach, Borough Park and Gravesend, the council member said.
“It’s not a one time case,” Zhuang said. “We have this type of case almost every single day this week.”
In November, ICE agents allegedly lured a young mother out of her Bensonhurst home and arrested her. Zhuang said another constituent, a “PTA parent” who was “doing every single thing right, and doing every single thing possible to follow the instructions, follow the law,” was recently detained at a green card interview. Agents also recently entered a store near Zhuang’s district office, she said, and detained and deported the owner.
The council member said three attorneys are volunteering to help with immigration issues at her office. Still, it is often very difficult to get information about constituents who are arrested, and can be impossible to track them through the ICE system.
Church members have seen ICE agents on patrol in the neighborhood regularly, Salgado said.
“What concerns us most is that they come into this community almost every day,” he said. “They go to the train station at New Utrecht and 18th Avenue, waiting at 6 o’clock in the morning and following a profile.”
Zhuang said she feels immigrants with criminal records should be deported — but that most of the people detained in her district are innocent.
“We are promised by [President Donald Trump] that ICE is committed to public safety, detaining violent criminals and then deporting them,” she said. “But [Barreno] was not a criminal. He is an active member of our community, serving and uplifting our community and constituents.”
Zhuang, an immigrant herself, said the immigration system in the U.S. is “very hard to understand.” Gaining legal status is complicated and can take many years, Zhuang said.
In 2025, thousands of people attending routine immigration hearings at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan were arrested by ICE. Many were detained even after judges ruled they could remain in the U.S. for additional court dates or to continue seeking asylum, others were arrested while attending mandatory ICE check-ins while awaiting immigration proceedings.
ICE has also conducted a number of raids across the city, arresting several vendors in lower Manhattan’s Chinatown and descending on multiple homes in Queens, where they forcibly arrested residents.
More than half of people arrested by ICE in New York City last year were deported, some to countries other than their country of origin.
“ … they do regular check-ins at 26 Federal Plaza, they follow the law, they follow instructions,” Zhuang said. “Those people should be given their chance.”
