ICE Detention and Deportation Put Due Process on Trial

Oscar Belgal, 28, remains detained with a bullet lodged in his neck after ICE agents shot him in Marble Hill while his 5-year-old son sat in the car. His lawyers are asking a court to release him, alleging agents fired into his vehicle without identifying themselves or showing documentation.

People’s Accounts, Against the Official Record

“ICE officers shot him in the neck in front of his 5-year-old son, failed to provide him with immediate medical assistance, and now continue to hold him in a facility notorious for medical neglect,” attorneys Perry McAninch and Elyssa Williams of The Legal Aid Society said. “With a bullet still lodged in his neck and his serious medical needs unmet, every additional day in custody puts him at further risk. The Court must intervene and order his immediate release.”

A judge temporarily barred officials from deporting Belgal or transferring him outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey without prior court approval. He remains at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t comment on the new allegations. It previously said agents fired because they believed their lives were in danger and alleged Belgal has ties to the Trinitarios gang.

In Illinois, a new project, Disappeared in America, is gathering accounts from people who say immigration enforcement detained or deported them, separated them from family, or otherwise harmed them. Backed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's administration and the Illinois Accountability Commission, the interactive database contains nearly 500 cases. Profiles may include photographs, video and audio recordings. Organizers say they want a public historical record that can grow over time.

Hina Mahmood, group executive director, said people contributed despite their fear. “They trusted us with their stories at a moment when many people were afraid to speak, and together they created a record that could not have been built by any one person or institution alone,” she said. She described the project as carrying Illinois accounts into a national effort, where people can document what’s happening in their communities.

The Cost Behind the Numbers

The site says the second Trump administration has deported more than 605,000 people, detained 400,000 through ICE and seen 33 people killed. Advocates with the Democracy Power Project say government announcements often reduce enforcement actions to numbers, while attention to individual cases fades.

The database includes Lorenza Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, whom the report said ICE agents shot dead in Texas and Maine, respectively, in July. It also includes Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis in January. Beatriz Lopez, co-founder and executive director of the Democracy Power Project, described an animated video about a girl named Ophelia, whose father was arrested. Lopez said the girl has cancer, and her story shows what daughters and sons experience when their parents are taken.

The state's Democratic governor created the Illinois Accountability Commission in October 2025 amid Operation Midway Blitz, ICE enforcement in Chicago and the surrounding area. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other leaders criticized the operation. Local protesters clashed with federal agents. Local law enforcement stepped in to try to keep the peace. Agents faced accusations of abuse during apartment raids and in their treatment of local police and reporters. The commission became the first state effort to investigate federal officers and their activities as the operation unfolded.

Courts, Congress and the Enforcement Apparatus

A separate court petition challenges the removal of Ernesto Zuniga Hilario, a Mexican national who lived in the United States and has four U.S.-citizen children. His attorneys say authorities deported him without a valid removal order or a meaningful chance to understand or challenge the legal basis. Zuniga Hilario says he declined voluntary departure because he wanted to present his case and expected to appear before an immigration judge.

According to court filings, officers apprehended him while he traveled with his family for a therapy appointment and held him at the T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas. The petition says officers repeatedly asked whether he wanted to leave voluntarily; after he declined, they put him on a bus, took him to an airport and flew him to Mexico City. Zuniga Hilario says he didn’t leave voluntarily. His attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, asking a federal judge to facilitate his return.

DHS disputes that account. A spokesperson said Zuniga Hilario signed a voluntary departure form on September 6 and returned to Mexico on September 16. DHS said ICE arrested him after a traffic stop conducted by the Lampasas County Sheriff's Office. The petition says no removal order applied and argues that, if officials reinstated an earlier order, they had to notify him and give him a chance to contest it. His attorneys acknowledge a possible jurisdictional hurdle: he had already been removed when they filed.

Lopez said other states that experienced ICE operations were expected to join the database. She said the project was intended to inform a future Congress and president, and called for policy changes to prevent similar harms. The federal government, meanwhile, says ICE targets dangerous offenders and highlights arrests on a webpage. An ICE spokesperson called officers “heroes” and said they meet professional standards. The competing accounts now sit beside court filings and the stories people have chosen to document.