New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) on Thursday night sharply criticized a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer for shooting a man in a car with a five-year-old child present, calling the tactics indefensible and demanding that federal agents halt their operations in the city.
“There is no explanation for these tactics. There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a five-year-old in the car. There is no explanation,” Mamdani said at a press conference following the shooting in the Marble Hill neighborhood.
The mayor also questioned the justification for the operation, noting that ICE’s stated mission is to keep the country safe. “How is it keeping everyone safe to have — as you just heard from Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch — individuals wearing construction vests in masks with long guns?” he asked. “Residents have no idea if these are law enforcement agents or if they are simply attacking someone on the street.”
Mamdani revealed that he had spoken directly with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the incident. “I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request that ICE agents leave the scene entirely, as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City,” he said, noting that the call lasted two hours. He added that his efforts to secure the release of the wounded man were “unsuccessful.”
The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. EDT when an ICE agent attempted to arrest 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, who was sitting in a car with his five-year-old son in the backseat. Commissioner Tisch said a preliminary investigation found that at least one agent fired seven rounds into the vehicle, striking Belgal in the neck below his left ear. The child was unharmed and is now with another family member.
In a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security said it was “conducting a targeted enforcement operation” to arrest a man with “prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession.” The department confirmed that Belgal is alive and receiving treatment at a local hospital.
The Trump administration announced in September that it would step up enforcement in “sanctuary cities,” including parts of New York. Since Trump returned to the White House, ICE has set records with back-to-back months of arrests exceeding 50,000 in July and August, according to the Deportation Data Project. Federal immigration agents have also shot at least 20 people, seven fatally, in the president’s second term.
The incident has intensified scrutiny of federal immigration tactics, with Mamdani’s criticism coming as Trump campaigns in blue states. The mayor’s call for ICE to leave New York echoes broader tensions between local officials and federal enforcement, a dynamic also seen in lawsuits against the government over border patrol shootings. As the Justice Department faces questions about the use of force, the families of other ICE shooting victims have also taken legal action against the administration.
