Protesters gathered outside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center on Oct. 13 to condemn ICE’s treatment of immigrants in federal custody, rallying in solidarity with Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old father who was shot in the neck by an ICE agent in Marble Hill last week while his 5-year-old son sat in the back of his car. Now held in solitary confinement at the Sunset Park prison, Belgal has a bullet lodged in his neck and, according to immigrant advocacy groups, has been denied adequate medical care.
MDC began accepting ICE detainees on June 20, 2025, after the Department of Homeland Security signed an interagency agreement with the Bureau of Prisons to house them at the facility, making it the only long-term ICE detention center in New York City. Currently, about 200 immigrants are held at MDC, including Belgal, whose case has drawn renewed attention to conditions inside the facility.
According to a statement issued by the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York, Belgal has not received adequate medical care. He said the left side of his face is numb and he can barely hear out of his left ear. He also has a shoulder wound caused by shattered glass during his arrest. Belgal said he has not eaten a single meal since his arrest and has been told the only water available to him comes from a bathroom sink.
The rally preceded the MDC Brooklyn Community Support group’s weekly Tuesday vigil, which for the past year and a half has brought together local prison justice groups, immigrant rights groups, faith leaders, concerned neighbors and people currently and formerly detained at MDC to protest inhumane conditions and demand a halt to the intake of immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Holding signs reading “ICE Out of NYC” and “Free Belgal,” coalition members and local lawmakers gathered outside the prison to call for justice. During the rally, incarcerated people could be heard banging on the windows, and attendees waved back in response.
MDC Community Support gathered for a rally and vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees and to protest inhumane conditions at the prison.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann 
MDC Community Support gathered for a rally and vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees and to protest inhumane conditions at the prison.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Anna Sugrue, co-founder and co-director of the Remedy Project, a youth-led prisoners’ rights advocacy group, told rally attendees that Belgal’s treatment was consistent with reports of torturous conditions at MDC shared by incarcerated people. Those reports included medical neglect, with doctors unavailable after 5 p.m. and on weekends, rotten food, staff retaliation and civil rights abuses.
“We cannot tolerate these conditions in our borough and in our city, and we cannot trust the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, to maintain basic humane standards of living in this facility,” Sugrue said. “It’s up to us here to demand these humane conditions on behalf of the people behind us, and not stop until these demands are met.”
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams condemned the shooting and detention of Belgal, saying nothing justified shooting someone several times in front of their child and then holding them in solitary confinement with a bullet in their neck. Williams also criticized President Donald Trump and federal officials for using faith and government power to justify violence in an effort to strip Black and Brown people of their humanity.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams condemned the shooting and detention of Belgal, saying nothing justified shooting someone several times.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
“You should not be in solitary confinement with a bullet in your neck after you’ve been shot with your child in the car. We should not have to say that in the United States of America in 2026. If these things were occurring in any other country, we would be sitting down, figuring out how we intervene to assist those folks. But we have liars, thieves, convicted crooks who are in charge of an agency that can be as violent as they want to be,” Williams said, vowing to stand up against the Trump administration’s cruelty and protect all immigrants.
MDC Community Support gathered for a rally and vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees and to protest inhumane conditions at the prison.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
“We’re going to stand here and fight for everyone who’s behind us, including Oscar, who is in solitary confinement with a bullet in his neck after being shot in front of his five-year-old child in a car on a busy street, at 4 p.m. picking his child up,” Williams went on. “That is an incredibly insane statement to have to say in Trump’s America. But that’s where we are, and I’m so proud to be a part of the better America.”
Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander said the danger ICE poses to children, including Belgal’s 5-year-old son, was not an isolated case. He shared that for the past couple of months, he has been attending detained juvenile dockets, where minors must appear in deportation proceedings.
Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander said the danger ICE poses to children, including Belgal’s 5-year-old son, was not an isolated case.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Detained minors have either been separated from their parents, held despite having relatives ready to care for them, or used as bait to pressure their parents to come forward, only to end up detained or deported themselves. Although the Trump administration canceled funding for legal services intended to provide children with legal representation, minors, some of whom do not speak English, must appear before an immigration judge without a lawyer to help them navigate their cases.
“We are living with an immigration system paid for with our tax dollars, by our government, in our name, that is putting immigrant children in harm’s way every single day. And last week, it was with a hail of bullets that could have killed that kid, for, as we hear, no reason that has been presented,” Lander said. “Let’s be clear: no reason that could justify endangering the life of a child.”
City Council Member Alexa Avilés, whose district includes Sunset Park, noted that MDC has long been a site of pain for incarcerated people and their families. The facility, which currently houses high-profile inmates including former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Luigi Mangione, has long been plagued by serious issues. In 2019, a power outage left prisoners without heat in the dead of winter, prompting national outrage. In 2024, a federal judge described conditions at the facility as “barbaric.”
City Council Member Alexa Avilés noted that MDC has long been a site of pain for incarcerated people and their families.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
“The conditions in this facility have been persistently horrific, and this needs to end. If the state cannot care for the people in its custody, it has no business holding people in its custody,” Avilés said, calling for solidarity in the fight against Trump’s inhumane deportation agenda and thanking MDC Brooklyn Community Support for its weekly vigils, which serve as a reminder not to lose faith amid cruelty.
“When this administration wants to do nothing but dehumanize and normalize cruelty, it is this community that stands here to remind us not to fall into that fray.”
After the rally, the coalition proceeded to the corner of Third Avenue and 29th Street for its weekly vigil, which featured speeches and interfaith songs. Some protesters lined up along Third Avenue holding signs, while passing drivers honked their horns in approval.
MDC Community Support gathered for a rally and vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees and to protest inhumane conditions at the prison.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann 
MDC Community Support gathered for a rally and vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees and to protest inhumane conditions at the prison.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes stressed the need to understand the gravity of the situation and organize the community to protect immigrant neighbors. She told Brooklyn Paper that Belgal’s inadequate medical care reflected the inhumanity of the Trump administration.
Mitaynes said she was disturbed that an ICE agent fired seven shots from a military-style rifle at a car carrying a child but was not surprised, given the aggressiveness ICE agents have displayed in other states. She also questioned why agents would approach and shoot someone who was on probation and not fleeing.
“The fact that he had any priors also does not justify the aggressiveness with which they came. We’re talking about a military-style rifle at 4o’clock in the afternoon, daylight in a residential area,” the pol said. “It’s clear that they have no training. They have no idea what they’re doing, and that makes them more dangerous. And that’s the scary part.”
Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge and one of the weekly vigil’s organizers, told Brooklyn Paper that the federal government was deliberately using the lack of medical care as a weapon to break detained immigrants’ spirits and force them to self-deport.
“Every four or five days, we have somebody in these detention centers killed. These are preventable deaths. But given the lack of medical care, the inhumane conditions that many of them are living in, that’s the result. It’s a deterrent kind of a policy. It’s cruelty,” Ruiz said, noting that ICE was escalating its presence even though New York City is a sanctuary city.
The Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz leads the vigil in solidarity with Oscar Belgal and immigrant detainees at MDC.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Lisa Raymond-Tolan, an organizer with Indivisible Brooklyn, encouraged New Yorkers to participate in the “No Kings; Vote Early” events on Oct. 17, including a parade and voter outreach event in Bay Ridge, New York City’s only swing district.
“This, in many ways, could be our last stand to save our democracy, and as Trump and the MAGA regime are increasing their horrific tactics in an effort to make them normal, we have to up our game as well,” Raymond-Tolan said. “The midterms are not always on everybody’s radar, and we need to educate voters that this may be your last chance to vote for democracy. We don’t know what’s going to happen during the election, after the election. So much is at stake that everybody needs to come together and get ready to confront the horrors still to come.”