New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants President Donald Trump to put an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operations in the city after an agent-involved shooting injured one person on Thursday.
“This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation,” Mamdani said in a statement Thursday evening. “I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.”
New York police said that around 4 p.m., federal agents got involved in a shooting and injured a man in the city’s Marble Hill residential section. The police’s afternoon statement said the shooting victim was conscious and receiving medical attention in a nearby hospital.
But at a press conference Thursday evening before furious protesters, Mamdani said that after his two-hour conversation with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, he has failed to negotiate the release of the shooting victim.
The response to the shooting incident tests Mamdani’s charm offensive with the President, who appears unlikely to budge on his immigration agenda despite previous friendliness with the Democratic mayor. Despite wide ideological differences, Trump and Mamdani have had a cordial relationship.
Mamdani, however, remains just as firm on his own side of the issue. A steadfast critic of ICE operations, he has backed calls to abolish the agency. “I have said this directly—whether to the President or to the public—ICE undermines public safety,” he said.
The White House pointed TIME to the Department of Homeland Security’s statement, which attacked New York’s “sanctuary politicians” that limit cooperation with federal agents. “When dangerous illegal aliens are released back onto the streets by radical sanctuary politicians, our officers are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments,” DHS posted on social media.
Besides Mamdani, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, released a swift rebuke of the shooting and said she too spoke with Trump and Mullin. “New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity,” the governor said. “Federal authorities need to provide answers, and they must do so immediately.”
City police commissioner Jessica Tisch said that based on initial information, police received multiple 911 calls around 4 p.m. reporting shots fired and a person shot near 2 Marble Hill Avenue.
Their preliminary investigation showed that federal immigration agents were “conducting a targeted enforcement operation” to take a person in a gray vehicle into custody. Their target, whom Tisch identified as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, was with a 5-year-old boy, whom police believed to be his son.
Tisch said that one plainclothes federal agent approached the driver’s side window, with his gun drawn, with another plainclothes agent near the headlight, before the vehicle moved forward. According to evidence collected on the scene, Tisch said that at least one ICE agent fired seven rounds, “striking the driver in the neck below his left ear.”
DHS said in its statement that an ICE officer “discharged his weapon” and injured its target, whom ICE agents immediately rendered aid to. “The incident remains under investigation,” the department added.
Tisch added that when New York police arrived on scene, they saw men in various clothes, including “at least one carrying a long gun.” Police also saw the injured Belgal “handcuffed and seated on the ground,” and they “immediately” placed him into a police vehicle and gave aid, before transporting him to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition. The child, meanwhile, is safe and in the care of a family member, Tisch added.
Tisch said that Belgal had two prior arrests in New York City: “one for robbery in 2023 in which he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and received five years probation; and one for criminal sale of a controlled substance in 2025, which is still pending.”
DHS did not name Belgal, but it described the target of the ICE operation as a “criminal illegal” immigrant from the Dominican Republic “with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession.”
The department alleged the shooting victim had ties to the Trinitarios gang, which was involved in the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer last year. It added that police arrested the target on Dec. 7, 2023, “but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk.”
The New York City shooting is just the latest in a spate of violent incidents involving federal immigration agents. Tallies from the New York Times and ABC News show more than 20 people shot, with at least six killed, including three U.S. citizens: Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Ruben Ray Martinez.
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The city has also become a hotspot for ICE-related activity. As Gothamist reported on Oct. 7, more than 8,800—or nearly half—of all ICE arrests in New York state during the second-term Trump Administration have happened in New York City’s five boroughs.
Lawmakers have since debated the nationwide enforcement of Trump’s immigration agenda, leading to funding battles and partial shutdowns of DHS.
Mamdani and other New York politicians took issue with how the ICE operation could have endangered a child. “There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a 5-year-old,” the New York mayor said in the press conference.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the Bronx, posted that “firing multiple rounds into a car with a child inside, on a busy residential street in the Bronx, is abhorrent and indefensible.”
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the Democrat representing the district covering Upper Manhattan and parts of West Bronx, posted on social media that ICE has denied him as well as the victim’s family from visiting and checking on the victim. Espaillat said he met the victim’s 5-year-old son, “distraught and traumatized after witnessing this horrific event.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York and led the legislative standoff that temporarily blocked funding for DHS, called the shooting “deeply disturbing, especially amid reports that a child was in the car when shots were fired.” The senator called on DHS to release body camera footage and ensure independent investigations.
