{"id":370514,"date":"2026-10-11T19:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370514\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T19:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:04:21","slug":"deeply-concerning-democratic-congressional-candidate-rebukes-ices-presence-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370514\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deeply concerning\u2019: Democratic congressional candidate rebukes ICE\u2019s presence in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic<\/a> congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier believes that the New York<\/a> police departments\u2019 conduct towards protesters after an ICE agent shot and wounded<\/a> a man in the district she is running to represent violated \u201cthe spirit, if not the letter\u201d of the city\u2019s sanctuary laws<\/a>. These rules ban local police from helping federal immigration authorities in civil immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

Protests broke out<\/a> in Manhattan\u2019s Marble Hill neighborhood after a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) agent shot Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican man, while he was sitting in his car with a five-year-old in the backseat. The child was physically unharmed, and Belgal was taken to the hospital. He was reported as being in stable condition<\/a>, before ICE reportedly<\/a>took him into custody<\/a> again. The Department of Homeland Security has said Belgal was undocumented.<\/p>\n

Related: New York City\u2019s Marble Hill residents furious after ICE shooting: \u2018Why do this?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

During Thursday night\u2019s demonstration, which drew a few hundred New Yorkers<\/a>, including Avila Chevalier, the NYPD set up barricades and clashed with protesters who were demanding ICE leave their neighborhood. Police had also helped carry<\/a> Belgal to an unmarked car, where they laid him in the backseat while he was still handcuffed.<\/p>\n

Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, said during a Thursday press conference that the NYPD was not involved in the federal immigration operation prior to the shooting. Tisch said officers arrived for the purpose of preserving evidence. She also referred to Belgal\u2019s previous criminal record<\/a> during the event.<\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier said in a phone interview on Friday that the police commissioner\u2019s mention of Belgal\u2019s prior arrests unfairly villainized him and \u201cshowed that Tisch was more interested in peddling the narrative of the Trump administration than in upholding sanctuary policies\u201d. The NYPD said in a statement that they always provide such information, and that many news outlets had asked about Belgal\u2019s criminal history.<\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier also said the police\u2019s \u201cinaction\u201d in protecting protesters was a failure to uphold the spirit of the city\u2019s sanctuary laws. She wrote on X<\/a> earlier on Friday: \u201cThe NYPD spent more time protecting a militia that just shot someone than protecting New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the interview, Avila Chevalier appeared less concerned with the minutia of the city\u2019s sanctuary law and more interested in getting rid of ICE entirely. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t need sanctuary policies if ICE didn\u2019t exist,\u201d she said. \u201cThe clearest solution here is the bold one: to demand that ICE be abolished.\u201d<\/p>\n

We wouldn\u2019t need sanctuary policies if ICE didn\u2019t exist. The clearest solution here: demand ICE be abolishedDarializa Avila Chevalier<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> also reiterated calls<\/a> to abolish ICE and has referred to Thursday\u2019s shooting as \u201cunconscionable\u201d. But he is facing pressure from progressives over reforming the NYPD in the wake of anti-ICE protests. Many immigration advocates, including Avila Chevalier, are calling for Tisch to step down and for the disbanding of the strategic response group (SRG), a rapid response unit within the NYPD that has been criticized<\/a> for cracking down harshly on protests.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has repeatedly<\/a>promised<\/a> to disband the SRG, although that has not yet happened. He has so far shown no indication that he would remove Tisch from her role. Avila Chevalier acknowledged her differences with the mayor on these issues but noted: \u201cIt is my duty as someone who was elected to represent this district to echo the demands of people in my district,\u201d she said. \u201cI would not be a good partner to [Mamdani] if I weren\u2019t doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. However, in an interview with the New York Times<\/a> on Friday, Mamdani affirmed that Tisch would remain in charge of his police force but condemned officers\u2019 aggression towards Avila Chevalier: \u201cI do not think it is acceptable to throw anyone to the ground in our city,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that to be true when it applies to the congresswoman-elect and, frankly, any New Yorker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier was on the front lines of Thursday\u2019s protest, and videos circling social media showed her being knocked to the ground by a police officer<\/a>. She says she \u201cfelt a hand grab and then throw [her] down to the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related: \u2018Abolish ICE\u2019: Mamdani, AOC and other Democrats urge action after New York shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, I felt like my feet were not touching the ground. I felt like I flew,\u201d she said, adding that she is \u201cthankfully OK\u201d but was \u201cin some pain\u201d the day earlier. Avila Chevalier had said she was trying to convince police that adding barricades was escalating the situation: \u201cThey were literally in a tug of war with people over these barricades,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople were being hurt and pushed back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police arrested<\/a> five protesters and said demonstrators \u201cagitated and pushed over barriers\u201d and \u201crepeatedly refused verbal commands to disperse\u201d. The NYPD also said that Avila Chevalier was pushed back by officers in an attempt to prevent the crowd from trampling the captain.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Avila Chevalier was distraught that Belgal\u2019s lawyers had not been able to locate him. \u201cThat is deeply concerning to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier is a longtime organizer, who was also present at Columbia University\u2019s pro-Palestine encampments<\/a>, but said she isn\u2019t used to this level of police aggression. She remains a strong believer in the impact of protest. \u201cSo much of the power given to our electeds comes from the space that constituents and organizers give us to be bold and to make those demands,\u201d she said. \u201cTo know I was there with my community \u2013 that is what made me feel not only that I can do this but that this is what my community is demanding of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier believes that the New York police departments\u2019 conduct towards protesters after an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-370514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}