Manuel Hernández Zelada, of Roosevelt, who disappeared after ICE arrest, located and talks to family after judge's order, advocate says

Two months after a Roosevelt man was arrested and disappeared into what an advocate calls ICE’s "black hole," his family found him — detained in a federal facility in New Mexico, the advocate said Monday.

Manuel Hernández Zelada, 27, who has mental health issues and needs medication, spoke to his father for the first time on Saturday, said Nadia Marin-Molina, who is assisting the family. They had no contact since the son’s arrest on Nov. 14, when he was walking to a deli to get food.

Hernández Zelada was located after lawyers on Jan. 7 filed a habeas corpus petition with a federal judge in the Eastern District demanding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provide information on his whereabouts, said Marin-Molina, an attorney who is also co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

"For me it has been a great joy to learn about my son ... to listen to his voice," Hernández Zelada's father told Newsday in Spanish on Monday. He did not want his name used for fear of repercussions from immigration officials. The two lived together in Roosevelt.

Paige Austin, an attorney for the nonprofit Make the Road NY who filed the habeas petition, said the case was "unbelievable. He vanished. He disappeared. Obviously no effort was made here to help this young person connect with his family. It was just a horrifying situation."

Advocates and attorneys said a growing number of immigrants like Hernández Zelada are disappearing into ICE’s detention system and being held incommunicado illegally for weeks amid the Trump administration’s escalating deportation campaign.

U.S. District Court Judge Sanket Bulsara ordered ICE and Homeland Security on Jan. 8 to tell the family where Hernández Zelada was currently and where else he had been held since his arrest. Austin said immigration officials called her the next day with his location.

"It's very galling that it's so easy for them to solve this very egregious problem and they hadn't done it until they were ordered by a court to do it," Austin said.

The judge also ordered ICE to keep Hernández Zelada in facilities in New York or New Jersey while the court case went forward, according to court records.

But ICE, through the U.S. Attorney's Office, responded in a letter to the judge that Hernández Zelada had agreed to voluntarily deport on Jan. 2, a request the government approved on Jan. 5. As of Monday, he remained in New Mexico, lawyers said.

Austin confirmed Monday that Hernández Zelada, who was in the country illegally, wants to return to his native El Salvador, ending the court case. He was held in four different facilities in Central Islip, New Jersey, Texas and New Mexico. 

She said that while he was in custody Hernández Zelada did not receive proper medical treatment.

"He was very scared and very isolated. The fact that ICE allowed this to go on for two months with someone with demonstrable medical needs is outrageous," Austin said. "This is a real person. He's a human being. He has a family and shouldn't be disappeared one day walking down the street."

The petition had argued Hernández Zelada was deprived of his due process rights from the time he was arrested.

"Petitioner was not accorded sufficient process prior to his sudden detention by ICE ... he received neither notice nor an opportunity to be heard as to whether detention was warranted, particularly in light of his serious mental illness and ongoing medical treatment," the petition states.

The habeas petition said he "suffers from schizophrenia which he developed as a young adult. He is prescribed antipsychotic medication and has been psychiatrically hospitalized on multiple occasions, including twice in 2025. Prior to his detention he was receiving treatment at Nassau University Medical Center."

Trump has said the deportation program is aimed at arresting immigrants with criminal records but advocates say others like Hernández Zelada, who has no criminal record, are being swept up too.

Regardless of immigration status, "people have a right to have contact with family and with legal counsel. Manuel never was able to have either of those," said Marin-Molina, who said it's as though immigrants taken by ICE sometimes get dropped into a "black hole."

She said ICE is "acting like the laws don't apply to them, like there are no restrictions on how they can treat or mistreat people. But someday they need to be held to account."

Newsday's Dec. 19 report on Hernández Zelada’s case was included in the habeas petition.

Newsday's Anastasia Valeeva contributed to this story.