On October 8, Oscar Belgal was shot and wounded by an agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Manhattan. Agents had been attempting to apprehend Belgal, an illegal alien, and deport him back to his native Dominican Republic.
The shooting was immediately and predictably denounced by New York City’s left-wing politicians, though none of the relevant facts had yet been established.
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On X, congressional candidate Brad Lander accused ICE of terrorism, even as he acknowledged that “we’re still learning details.” The city council’s “progressive” caucus released a statement denouncing the shooting as “a violent reminder” of why “we must abolish ICE.” Governor Kathy Hochul expressed “outrage” after the shooting, while also acknowledging that “there is still much we don’t know about what happened.” Attorney General Letitia James released a statement referring to Belgal as a “victim” while noting that an investigation hadn’t yet been completed. And, of course, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an example of how “ICE agents terrorize our communities.” The shooting also sparked a night of unruly protests during which NYPD officers were attacked by angry crowds.
All we really know is that Belgal was wounded once in the neck after being fired upon by at least one ICE agent who, with others, had surrounded his vehicle, which also contained Belgal’s five-year-old son. According to initial statements by federal authorities, the agents were not aware of the child’s presence in the vehicle, and they fired in response to Belgal allegedly attempting to “weaponize” his car against them, possibly to evade capture.
Some facts: ICE has jurisdiction to operate throughout the United States, including New York City; Belgal is not authorized to be in the United States; firing in response to the weaponization of a vehicle against agents falls within the agency’s use-of-force guidelines; and Belgal has a violent criminal history. Given all this, the anger over the shooting before the conclusion of an investigation into its lawfulness is senseless.
The denunciations of ICE are especially odd in light of Belgal’s stateside criminal history. That includes a prior arrest for dealing hard drugs and a prior robbery arrest that ended in a plea. The New York Post also reported that a resident of a building Belgal lived in said that the Dominican national terrorized his neighbors with a machete—the weapon of choice for members of the Trinitarios street gang, to which federal authorities say Belgal has ties.
Why have so many rallied around a figure as unsympathetic as Belgal? There are only two plausible answers, and neither reflects well on the city’s progressives. Either they want a criminal like Belgal—who not only broke our immigration laws but also then led a life of crime upon arriving in the United States—to remain on the streets of their cities. Or they seized on the shooting because they thought it could help amplify their message in the lead-up to the midterm elections, while giving local radicals something else with which to try tarring NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Their rage is oddly one-sided. If they really cared about the wellbeing of actual New Yorkers, they’d have been just as upset about the Dominican NYPD detective, Jose Mercedes, who was stabbed seven times by two illegal immigrants just a few days before the Belgal shooting. If they were really concerned with the welfare of New Yorkers, they’d be issuing fiery statements and taking to the streets over the fact that an innocent 12-year-old girl was shot multiple times after being caught between two rival gangs on a Bronx street on Monday. If they were genuine advocates for community safety, we’d have seen the same energetic calls for reform after a one-year-old baby was wounded by a black-clad shooter who opened fire on a Bronx street in broad daylight the same day.
Instead of calling to abolish the gangs actually driving New York City’s gun violence problem, the left is calling to abolish ICE. Instead of rethinking the sanctuary policies that keep thugs like Belgal on the streets, they are calling for an overhaul of the NYPD’s use-of-force policies and demanding the resignation of Commissioner Tisch. This despite the department having nothing to do with Belgal’s shooting. In fact, NYPD officers had fired their guns in just 23 incidents as of the end of June.
Instead of calling for calm and waiting for the facts, elected progressives are once again fanning the flames. They’ve evidently already forgotten that their chants were echoed by a madman in the attempted firebombing at 26 Federal Plaza just months ago.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the Belgal shooting, it’s that the usual critics of law enforcement will never waste an opportunity to undercut the institutions charged with keeping us safe. As always, it’s the most vulnerable who will pay the price.