A federal immigration officer shot and wounded Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill on Thursday. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded by calling for ICE’s abolition and urging the Trump administration to halt immigration enforcement operations in the city. The shooting put Mamdani’s demand to stop federal operations in direct conflict with the Department of Homeland Security’s account that officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation.
The shooting and federal account
The officer shot Belgal in the neck as he drove in a car with a 5-year-old boy, officials said. It happened Thursday afternoon. The Department of Homeland Security said officers sought to arrest Belgal in a “targeted enforcement operation.” The department described him as a “criminal illegal alien” with a grand larceny conviction and a history of other arrests.
That information came from the department’s account of the operation. The base report gives no further details about how the shooting unfolded and doesn’t identify the federal officer. It says Belgal suffered a wound and went to a hospital, where federal authorities took him away late Thursday night.
The department’s description of its arrest target stands in sharp contrast to Mamdani’s demand to stop enforcement operations. Mamdani said ICE undermines public safety and called the shooting an outrage. He called for the agency’s abolition after Belgal was shot.
City leaders press Trump
Mamdani said he spent two hours Thursday night pressing President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to release Belgal and stop immigration enforcement operations in New York. Federal authorities removed Belgal from the hospital late that night and took him away, Mamdani said.
The mayor wants to halt immigration enforcement operations across the city, not just address this shooting. His demand puts a city leader’s opposition to federal enforcement directly before the Trump administration and the department responsible for the operation. The report doesn’t say the administration agreed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said she delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin by phone. Her intervention aligned her with Mamdani’s appeal to the president and homeland security secretary. The report provides no further details about either call, and says neither Trump nor Mullin responded.
Mamdani said he sought a halt because, in his view, ICE undermines public safety and the shooting was an outrage. The department, meanwhile, said officers had sought to arrest Belgal in a targeted operation and cited his conviction and arrest history. Those are the claims and details the report attributes to the two sides.
The federal operation, the mayor’s abolition call, and the request to stop enforcement in New York make up the central dispute. Belgal was shot in the neck while driving with a 5-year-old boy, according to officials; federal authorities later removed him from the hospital, according to Mamdani. City and state leaders appealed to the same two federal officials. No outcome of those appeals was reported.