Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is defending federal immigration officers after an ICE operation in the Bronx on October 8 ended with a man shot in the neck. The man, identified by police as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal of the Dominican Republic, was driving with a 5-year-old boy in the car when he was hit. Mullin called him a thug and a gangbanger who should have been deported years ago, and DHS says he has ties to the Trinitarios gang and a record that includes a grand larceny conviction and earlier arrests, though officials did not accuse him of the recent shooting of a CBP officer linked to that gang. Federal officials say Belgal fled, rammed two ICE vehicles and drove toward officers, and Mullin said the agents did not know a child was inside.

Mullin used the case to attack New York's sanctuary policies, arguing that ignored ICE detainers let people with criminal histories stay free instead of being handed over for removal. DHS says New York has ignored thousands of detainers in recent years, a figure that has not been independently verified here. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sharply condemned the shooting and called for ICE to be removed from the city, and Mullin hit back, calling the criticism political theater. The shooting is still under investigation, so many of the details, including what happened inside the vehicle, rest on federal accounts that have yet to be independently confirmed.