ICE Agent Shoots New York Man In Car With Five-Year-Old, Sparking Protests

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called for an end to ICE operations in New York after a federal agent shot a man in the Bronx while a five-year-old child was inside his car.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot a 28-year-old Dominican national in New York City on Thursday, prompting protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and calls from city and state officials to halt enforcement operations.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani described the incident as an “unconscionable and incredibly serious situation”. He said preliminary information indicated that federal agents had surrounded the man and the child in the Marble Hill neighbourhood before firing multiple rounds. The child was believed to be physically unharmed, Mamdani said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said officers were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” in the Bronx at around 4 pm on Thursday to arrest a 28-year-old Dominican national with a criminal conviction. New York police identified the man as Oscar Belgal.

Mamdani said he had called US President Donald Trump and would demand that he end all ICE enforcement actions in the city.

“I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorise our communities,” Mamdani said.

Protests broke out on Thursday evening, with demonstrators arguing that the shooting highlighted the dangers of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Some scuffles also broke out between protesters and police.

“We are heartbroken and enraged,” said City Council member Carmen De La Rosa, who represents the area.

Speaking at the scene later that evening, Mamdani criticised the agency’s conduct and called for its abolition.

“Today’s shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known, which is that ICE operates with impunity, that they sow chaos and terror across our country, that they have killed far more of our neighbours than they could ever have claimed to save.”

He demanded that the agency “must be abolished”.

New York Officials Demand Halt To ICE Operations

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she spoke with Trump and US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Thursday night following the shooting.

“I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,” she said in a statement.

“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.”

Al Jazeera reported that DHS said an officer “discharged his weapon” during the operation and that Belgal was injured. The department referred to him as “the criminal illegal alien” and said the incident remained under investigation.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer in plain clothes approached him with a gun drawn. A second federal officer, also not in uniform, then approached the vehicle.

Belgal began pulling the car forward, after which at least one officer fired seven rounds, hitting him below his left ear, Tisch said.

She confirmed that the five-year-old child was unharmed and was with a relative.

The New York Police Department said Belgal remained conscious following the shooting and was receiving medical treatment at a nearby hospital.

ICE Faces Scrutiny After Minneapolis Killings

The shooting comes amid months of mounting criticism of ICE following the deaths of two US citizens in separate incidents involving federal agents in Minneapolis in January.

Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead by an ICE agent on January 7. Later that month, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by a US border agent.

Following Good’s death, Trump administration officials described her as a “domestic terrorist”. Video footage of the shooting cast doubt on the administration’s claims that she had attempted to run over an agent.

Al Jazeera reported that the federal government removed local authorities from the investigation into the Minneapolis killings, rejected calls for a civil rights investigation and deployed hundreds of additional federal agents to Minnesota. The deployment brought the total number of federal agents in Minnesota to 3,000, as protests against the killings and the administration’s immigration crackdown spread to hundreds of US cities.

Trump blamed what he described as unfair media coverage for the shift in public opinion about ICE. He urged the Department of Homeland Security and the agency to publicise the “violent criminals” they arrest.

ICE Expansion Under Trump

ICE has been tasked with deporting one million people a year under the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.

The agency doubled in size during the first year of Trump’s second term, reaching more than 22,000 agents by January. It is now the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency, with about $75 billion allocated to it over four years under a tax bill Trump signed last year.