Bronx residents rejected Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s claim that an illegal immigrant shot by ICE is a New Yorker, branding him a criminal after he allegedly rammed agents with a child in the car.

Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican national who entered the United States illegally in 2022, was wounded in the neck Thursday when ICE officers opened fire during a targeted stop in Marble Hill in the Bronx. Federal officials say Belgal accelerated his vehicle into government cars and drove toward agents, who fired because they feared for their lives.

A five-year-old child was inside the vehicle and was unharmed. Belgal survived a graze wound, was treated, and was later booked into MDC-Brooklyn after transport from ICE custody in Newark, New Jersey. A federal judge has since blocked his deportation after immigration advocates filed a petition.

Breitbart News reported that local residents refused to accept the mayor’s framing and pointed instead to Belgal’s record and the danger he created.

Mamdani calls him a New Yorker; neighbors say otherwise

In a social media post Thursday evening, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called Belgal a “New Yorker” and said residents wanted ICE out of the area. Just The News reported that Mamdani went further, calling the shooting an outrage and saying ICE is “rotten to its core.”

“What happened today was an outrage. We know that ICE is rotten to its core. Today’s shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known.”

Bronx mom Migdalia Martinez was not buying it. Her 12-year-old son, Jacob Freytas, was killed in gangland crossfire while riding his bike in July in the Mt. Eden area. She told reporters she does not see Belgal as part of the city.

“I don’t consider him a New Yorker. The only thing I do consider him as is trash, nothing else but trash. And I don’t consider New York, my home, as trash.”

Neighbor Mora Rodriguez was just as blunt, and she tied the problem to soft-on-crime courts and sanctuary policies that keep repeat offenders on the street.

“Absolutely not. That’s one of the reasons I think we should vote blue out. What’s going on with the legal system, the jail, letting these people go after they have a whole list of convictions? This is a criminal. Why would you let this person out? These judges are very radical. We gotta vote red.”

Feds say Belgal weaponized the car

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the officers and put the blame on Belgal’s choices. Mullin said agents did not know a child was in the car, but Belgal did. He said Belgal accelerated at high speed, rammed two vehicles, and appeared to drive toward officers.

“We weren’t aware the child was in the car, I can tell you that. But do you know who was? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in his car. Oscar chose to accelerate at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as it appears he was going towards officers. And so the public outcry should also be towards this criminal, this thug, this gangbanger, this possible murderer; the outrage should be with him for endangering the five year old.”

The New York Post reported that Marcos Charles, head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, described the same sequence: Belgal smashed into two ICE vehicles, then accelerated toward other officers. Charles said agents fired because they believed their lives, their partners’ lives, and the public were in danger.

Similar confrontations have surfaced elsewhere, including a thrice-deported illegal immigrant arrested after allegedly driving at ICE agents in California.

Rap sheet, gang probe, and sanctuary fallout

Court records cited in reporting show Belgal’s path after his illegal entry. He was involved in a 2023 gunpoint robbery. After a 2025 conviction, he was allegedly selling drugs. Federal authorities were investigating his potential involvement with the Trinitarios gang and a 2025 shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer. Officials also noted prior arrests tied to fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine sales, plus a pending DHS detainer.

Democrat-run bail and sanctuary rules in New York helped keep him free despite that record. Mullin put the charge directly: sanctuary politicians create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for American citizens to be safe. That is the gap residents like Martinez and Rodriguez are living with every day.

The pattern is familiar to readers following other enforcement clashes, such as a Venezuelan man shot by an ICE agent in Austin who remained in federal custody afterward.

Judge blocks removal as protests rise

Fox News reported that U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken temporarily barred Belgal’s deportation and limited out-of-area transfers while a detention challenge proceeds. Belgal was treated, released from the hospital with a bullet still in his body, and moved into federal custody. Anti-ICE protests followed the shooting.

Immigration attorney Harold Solis argued that a criminal history does not make it lawful to shoot a father with his son in the back seat. Federal officials answered with the facts of the stop: refused orders, rammed vehicles, drove at officers, and forced a split-second use of force. DHS has said it will not pause efforts to take criminal migrants into custody.

Local Democratic pressure on ICE is not new. It tracks the same politics seen when Ocasio-Cortez rallied Democrats on ICE and the midterms, putting enforcement itself on trial rather than the repeat offenders who trigger it.

Another recent case underscored the risk of flight during stops, when an illegal immigrant died in a crash after fleeing an ICE stop in Grand Rapids.

For families in the Bronx, the issue is not abstract. A mother who lost her son to gang crossfire will not rubber-stamp the mayor’s label. A neighbor looking at a long conviction list will not call the man in the driver’s seat a neighbor in good standing. They want the people who break the law and endanger children held to account, not rebranded as victims the moment ICE arrives.

When leaders call a man with a gunpoint robbery, drug cases, and an alleged vehicle attack “one of us,” ordinary New Yorkers answer with the record, and they are right to do it.