Brooklyn Deacon Arrested by Federal Immigration Agents in Bensonhurst

A Brooklyn deacon was detained by federal immigration officials at his Bensonhurst home on Thursday as part of a raid that also swept up about half a dozen other Brooklyn residents, according to elected and church officials.

Deacon Sebastian Renoj Barreno was detained on Bay Ridge Parkway by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after years of leading the community, according to Pastor Erick Salgado of Iglesia Jovenes Cristianos church group.

“ICE agent came and they were outside just waiting for everyone who walking out of this building, and they took like six or seven members of our community, including one of my leader, Sebastian Renoj Barreno, who has been a leader of my church for over 18 years,” Salgado said on Friday during a press conference in front of Barreno’s home. “[He has] no criminal record, no problem, not even a traffic ticket.”

Salgado, who did not disclose where Barreno immigrated from, expressed the church community’s peaceful existence and denounced the idea that ICE is only coming after those with criminal records.

When President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, there were roughly 40,000 people being held in immigration detention. By the start of December, that number had risen by almost 75% with nearly 66,000 people held in immigration detention across the United States, according to the American Immigration Council.

A third of all ICE arrests have had no criminal records, according to the Deportation Data Project.

Salgado said that Barreno, who has legal representation, is now in a detention center in New Jersey.

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