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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani demanded that ICE get out of the city Thursday after an agent shot a driver with a young child inside his SUV, while law enforcement officials alleged the man tried to ram federal officers.
Mamdani took his demands to President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, then acknowledged his push to halt immigration enforcement and secure the wounded man’s release had failed.
“This city wants ICE out,” Mamdani said. “All they do is terrorize this city.”
The mayor called the agency “rotten to its core” as hundreds of protesters gathered in Marble Hill following the shooting of Oscar Belgal, 28.
The Department of Homeland Security said agents were “conducting a targeted enforcement operation” to arrest a Dominican illegal alien with a grand larceny conviction and prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession.
Two law enforcement officials told NBC New York that Belgal allegedly tried to “ram his vehicle” into federal officers.
DHS also alleged that Belgal had ties to the Trinitarios gang, whose members were involved in the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer last year.
Mamdani said masked agents wearing construction vests surrounded Belgal’s gray Honda CR-V shortly after 4 p.m., as children were leaving school. At least one agent opened fire, according to the mayor.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was struck in the neck below his left ear. At least seven shell casings were recovered.
“There is no justification for what we’ve seen today,” Mamdani said.
The mayor called the shooting “unconscionable and incredibly serious” on social media, saying his “thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery.”
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Confrontations broke out as protesters crowded the area. More than a dozen people reportedly grabbed a masked ICE agent and pinned him against a wall after he approached the police tape.
“Take the mask off!” people shouted before NYPD officers intervened and pulled the agent behind the cordon.
Other protesters appeared to block Homeland Security agents responding to the scene. Officers also struggled with people who grabbed a barrier and pushed against it.
The NYPD said five people were taken into custody during the protests.
Mamdani said he urged Trump and Mullin to withdraw agents from the scene and end ICE operations across the city.
“Now I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request [is] that ICE agents leave the scene entirely — as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City,” he said.
“We know, and I have said this directly, whether to the president or to the public, ICE undermines public safety. It makes us less safe,” he argued.
Mamdani said he also tried to negotiate Belgal’s release from custody, but the illegal alien had been “whisked away” from the hospital shortly before the mayor’s news conference.
“Let me say this plainly, what happened today was an outrage,” Mamdani said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also contacted Trump and Mullin, joining Mamdani’s demand to halt immigration enforcement operations.
“I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,” she wrote on social media.
“I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.”
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
