Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded a full investigation of a Bronx ICE shooting and blamed Target for aiding agents, even as the wounded illegal immigrant carried a long criminal record.
Federal immigration agents shot a 28-year-old illegal immigrant in the neck Thursday afternoon in the Bronx while trying to take him into custody, with a young child sitting in the backseat of the car.
The man, identified by the NYPD as Oscar Belgal, was struck around 4:20 p.m. on Marble Hill Avenue in Marble Hill. A 5-year-old boy believed to be his son was not hurt. Belgal was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and was expected to survive before being moved late Thursday night in an unmarked ICE vehicle.
The New York Post reported that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded by calling for a sweeping probe, the release of body-camera video, and the abolition of ICE, while also accusing Target of letting agents use its Bronx properties as staging sites.
The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal had ties to the Trinitarios gang and listed prior convictions for grand larceny plus multiple arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession, and weapons possession.
Federal investigators were also looking at whether he had any connection to a migrant moped gang that shot an off-duty Border Patrol agent at Fort Washington Park last year, sources said.
The Washington Examiner reported that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the officers and said Belgal was an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic with an extensive criminal history. Mullin told reporters the man had a 5-year-old child in the vehicle when federal officers approached and he tried to escape.
Additional reporting filled in the force used during the stop. Just The News reported that at least one ICE officer fired seven times through the vehicle windshield, striking Belgal in the neck. Belgal remained in stable condition, and the child was unharmed.
Ocasio-Cortez issued a statement Thursday night that cast the agency as a threat to the city rather than a law-enforcement body carrying out federal arrests.
She said:
"ICE’s already unwelcome presence in our city has been growing more escalatory and dangerous by the day. Today’s shooting is a grave development that requires a swift and immediate response to protect the safety of all New Yorkers."
She added a demand for process and footage:
"First, we must have a full and independent investigation of this incident," and called for the "full and immediate release of all body camera footage of the incident."
Then she went further, labeling the agency in language that rejects its legal authority:
"ICE is a rogue, lawless paramilitary and surveillance agency. It does not belong in New York City and it should not exist in the United States of America. Abolish ICE."
She also turned on Target, claiming the company had opened its properties to agents.
"In addition, the Target Corporation must stop offering their Bronx properties as private staging sites for ICE, in compliance with requests from New York officials. Target opening up large, active retail parking lots for paramilitary activity is unacceptable and places the entire community at risk."
A Target representative rejected the charge on Friday. “Target has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency,” the rep said. The store in question sits about half a mile from the shooting scene and is used by other businesses as well.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani framed the arrest itself as an attack on the community and said he contacted the White House.
He stated:
"This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation. 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."
Just The News reported that Mamdani said he spent hours on the phone with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Mullin trying to secure Belgal’s release and to get ICE agents off the scene and out of the city. Those talks failed.
Mamdani said: “For the past two hours, I’ve been on the phone with President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary Mullin negotiating the release of the man ICE agents shot. Those negotiations were unsuccessful. Now 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.”
Protesters took to the streets after the shooting. City leaders answered a custody attempt against a man with a documented criminal history by demanding the agents leave and the case be dropped.
Belgal was shot during an attempted arrest, not a random street encounter. DHS tied him to gang activity and listed prior convictions and arrests involving violence, theft, drugs, and weapons. A child was in the car when he tried to get away. He was treated, then moved by ICE.
Ocasio-Cortez answered that sequence by calling ICE illegitimate and accusing a major retailer of collusion that the company flatly denied. The mayor answered it by lobbying the president to free the suspect and halt enforcement in New York City.
No public body-camera footage had been released in the immediate aftermath. The precise commands, resistance, or threat level inside the car during the stop were not laid out in full detail in early accounts. What was clear was the official claim of gang ties, the prior record, the escape attempt with a child present, and the political demand to pull federal agents out of the city.
When ICE takes a repeat offender off the street, the first instinct of progressive leaders should not be to free him and shut down the agency doing the job.
