US Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin lashed out at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday over his demand that federal immigration agents leave the city following the shooting of a Dominican man.<\/p>\n
“His words are dangerous and incite hostility,” Mullin said at a press conference during which he defended the conduct of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.<\/p>\n
Mullin said Oscar Belgal, 28, the man shot and wounded in the Bronx by ICE agents on Thursday, had an extensive criminal history and was trying to evade arrest.<\/p>\n
“He came to this country legally a few years ago, and ever since he’s come in, he’s committed crime and crime after crime,” the Homeland Security secretary said.<\/p>\n
Belgal suffered a superficial wound to the neck and was hospitalized. A five-year-old child who was in his car at the time was physically unharmed.<\/p>\n
Mullin said ICE officers did not know there was a child in the car when they opened fire.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, a Democrat, condemned the shooting and said he would ask President Donald Trump to halt ICE enforcement actions in New York.<\/p>\n
“Abolish ICE,” the mayor said on X.<\/p>\n
“Mayor, if you abolish ICE, who’s going to take criminals off the streets of your own town?” Mullin responded. “Who’s going to take the murderers and the thieves and the gangbangers?”<\/p>\n
Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, also addressed the press conference and said Belgal had “refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle.”<\/p>\n
“He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles, and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate, going towards other officers,” Charles said.<\/p>\n
“Our officers, using their training, and believing that their life and the lives of their partners and general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” he said.<\/p>\n
Several hundred protesters gathered peacefully at the scene of the shooting Thursday evening to express opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, heavily criticized Mamdani before he took office in January, but the two men have since struck a surprisingly warm relationship.<\/p>\n
ICE has been involved in several high-profile shootings this year, including the killing of two US citizens in Minneapolis, which sparked angry protests.<\/p>\n
New York, a Democratic stronghold, is one of several US cities that bars its police force from assisting with federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
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