ICE shooting in New York stirs debate over local cooperation

The Department of Homeland Security has renewed its bashing of what it calls sanctuary policies in New York City, after one of its officers shot an immigrant there with a child in the car. As the mayor escalates calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement following Thursday’s shooting – one of several this year – legal limits to ICE’s attempts to get help from the state have come to the fore.The shooting occurred during an attempt to arrest an unauthorized immigrant from the Dominican Republic with a criminal record and gang ties, DHS said. At least one officer fired seven times, local police say, while a 5-year-old child was with the man in his car.Legal advocates and officials have identified the man shot as Oscar Belgal. Federal officials say Mr. Belgal refused lawful orders from officers who blocked him in, and he then accelerated and smashed into ICE vehicles. He was hospitalized and survived – as did the child, who wasn’t physically harmed or known to officers at the time, DHS said. While DHS has spelled the man’s last name as Bengal, his legal counsel uses Belgal.In addition to various arrests, DHS said Mr. Belgal has a conviction for grand larceny, which the Monitor could not immediately confirm. Police arrested Mr. Belgal in December 2023, but he was released a few days later, DHS said.“ICE undermines public safety,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called for the agency to end operations in the city. “They are making New Yorkers terrified.” In the immigration context, sanctuary often implies places that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials.“Sanctuary politicians, they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin at a press conference Friday.Since January 2025, the secretary said, his department has brought nearly 15,000 detainers in New York for immigrants the administration calls criminals. But those requests were met with “absolute silence.”The finger-pointing escalates a long-standing argument between places led by Democrats and the federal government over federal immigration law – and who should help enforce it.DetainersIn New York, state law bans partnerships with ICE made through 287(g) agreements. That federal program deputizes local and state law enforcement with certain immigration authorities, which some New York sheriffs want.Separate from those agreements, though, is the issue of ICE detainers. Those are requests from ICE to law enforcement agencies that ask for notification ahead of an immigrant’s release from detention and a hold of up to 48 hours beyond the ordinary release so that DHS can take custody. Marcos Charles, head of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said Friday that there was a detainer for Mr. Belgal, though he didn’t say when that request was filed. The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to several questions, including for confirmation of the detainer.“Yesterday could have been prevented,” had Mr. Belgal been previously transferred to ICE in a jail setting, says Scott Mechkowski, a former ICE official who worked in New York. “We would be negligent in our duties” if ICE didn’t file detainers ahead of the release of immigrants with criminal records, he says.However, a state court decision complicates the Trump administration’s demand for compliance. In 2018, a New York appeals court ruled that holding someone beyond their ordinary release, for the purpose of federal immigration arrests, is illegal. The state attorney general says local law enforcement can’t typically pursue such detentions without a warrant signed by a judge.Even beyond New York, “Generally speaking, ICE detainers are not judicial warrants. ... They do not have the status of a detainer in the criminal system,” says David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who has studied the intersection of criminal and immigration law.Jurisdictions might choose to honor civil ICE detainers, but those requests don’t have the same legal weight as a court order, he says. Despite noncooperation from officials in New York, ICE has continued arrests there.This summer, the monthlong Operation Rotten Apple alone led to the arrests of 2,197 unauthorized immigrants across the state, which included “murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and violent assailants,” DHS said. As of this summer, ICE reported that convicted criminals made up less than a third of its detainees.For now, Mr. Belgal appears to remain in ICE custody. Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group, is asking a federal judge for his release. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. “We are calling for a thorough investigation ... and for accountability for those responsible,” Yaritza Mendez, deputy director for the group, said in a statement.DHS said an ICE law enforcement branch – criminal investigators at Homeland Security Investigations – arrived at the shooting scene, along with the FBI. The FBI’s New York office said its evidence response team was supporting DHS partners. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? 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