New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday issued a message in Spanish to people in the city detailing how they can resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after criticizing ICE’s detention of an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic.
Mamdani has long called for ICE to be abolished, and renewed those calls earlier this month, when he criticized federal agents for shooting Oscar Belgal in the neck as they sought to detain the Dominican national in the Big Apple. Officials say Belgal, who survived the encounter, had two prior arrests in New York City and is connected to the Dominican American Trinitarios gang operating in the area.
On Friday, Mamdani said “these are very frightening times for many people,” in a video statement that reminded people living in the city of their “rights” should they encounter ICE. He pointed people to the city’s immigration legal support phone number, noted that ICE cannot legally enter private spaces without a judicial order, and reiterated that the NYPD is not permitted to coordinate with ICE on immigration enforcement.
“As your mayor, I will fight every day to protect, support, and celebrate our communities,” Mamdani said.
The mayor’s message comes after he denounced an ICE officer who shot Belgal, 28, in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood earlier this month. Belgal survived the incident and was treated at the hospital for his wound before being transported to a detention facility.
Mamdani, who recently targeted the NYPD’s use-of-force policies, swiftly seized on the shooting to demand ICE be abolished and that President Donald Trump end ICE operations in New York City. He urged the Trump administration to release Belgal and condemned federal agents for targeting the man when his child was in the car. The mayor compared the immigration officer who shot Belgal to a “mass shooter” because he was in plainclothes, saying there’s “a reason why law enforcement agents are supposed to wear identifiable information and uniforms.”
“ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces,” Mamdani said. “There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents.”
In the days since the incident, the mayor has urged owners and operators of parking garages and lots in the city to block ICE from using them as “staging areas” for operations, in a request backed by fellow New Yorkers Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
The Trump administration said Belgal is an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, who was detained after being charged with felony robbery, assault, larceny, and drug possession. He weaponized his car, attempting to drive into nearby ICE officers, who took action, striking Belgal with a bullet superficially in the neck, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
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“This guy we knew was dangerous,” Mullin told CNN. “We knew he was probably harmed. He had fled from us before. We had taken every precaution possible to take, and for when us to approach his vehicle, we approached it, and he was given lawful commands.
“He knew exactly who we were,” he said. “He decided to flee once again, like he had done before, and so when someone tries to flee from us, they’re taking they’re they’re making their decisions at that time. The truth is, this guy was an awful human being. He was a thug. He was a gangbanger, and he had only been in the country for three years, and he had this long of a rap sheet and had been released multiple times by New York state at the same time.”