U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth has fired an aide who federal officials accused of posing as a lawyer to gain access to an immigration detainee in St. Louis.
In a letter dated Monday to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, Duckworth wrote that she had “terminated the employment of said employee, effective November 17, 2025.”
Duckworth did not identify the aide in her letter, but Lyons previously told the senator that Edward York, her Constituent Outreach Coordinator, “falsified an official DHS form” to enter an ICE facility and meet with detainee Jose Ayuzo Sandoval. Ayuzo, 40, is a Mexican national who has been deported four times and has a 2008 misdemeanor DUI conviction, officials said.
Lyons said York entered the ICE facility in St. Louis and “claimed to be Mr. Ayuzo’s attorney” while demanding to meet with his “client.” York then met with Ayuzo and obtained his signature on a Form G-28, which formally authorizes a lawyer to represent someone in immigration proceedings.
Duckworth, in her response, said “neither I nor my leadership team was aware of, authorized or directed what your letter describes as the employee’s conduct.”
The controversy became public after the Department of Homeland Security posted a video last Wednesday that purportedly showed York inside the ICE facility.
This @SenDuckworth staff member allegedly claimed to be the lawyer of a 40-year-old illegal immigrant who had been deported to Mexico 4 times and had a DUI conviction, in order to seek his release from custody. He accomplished this by falsifying an official Department of Homeland… pic.twitter.com/R3ggCwolE6
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 12, 2025
According to Lyons, York “falsified an official DHS form” in an effort to assist Ayuzo’s release. Four days later, a Collinsville, Illinois, law firm filed a G-28 form electronically without Ayuzo’s signature, despite York already having obtained a signed copy. Lyons suggested York “may have collaborated with the firm to cover his misrepresentation.”
ICE said there is no record of York being a licensed attorney. Officials also cited a Facebook post from the Montgomery County Democrats that mentioned a staffer visiting an ICE field office with “documents and a release order” who was misrepresenting himself to law enforcement officers.
The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission’s database of licensed Illinois attorneys yielded no results for the name “Edward York.”
