By Shireen Akram-Boshar<\/p>\n
This article was originally published by Truthout<\/a><\/p>\n Lawyers for Oscar Belgal have called for his immediate release, citing inadequate care.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Oscar Belgal, the 28-year-old Dominican man shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York City last Thursday, has not received surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his neck for over a week.<\/p>\n Lawyers for Oscar Belgal have called for his immediate release, citing inadequate care.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Legal Aid Society, which is representing Belgal, filed a habeas corpus petition<\/a> decrying ICE\u2019s \u201cflagrant abuses of authority and categorically lawless conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE agents attacked Belgal in Manhattan on October 8 around 4 PM, soon after he picked up his 5-year-old son from school. The Legal Aid Society\u2019s petition describes ICE\u2019s sudden attack, noting that \u201can anonymous, masked man stormed Oscar\u2019s driverside window with his firearm drawn, followed closely behind by several other masked men also wielding firearms. The men did not identify themselves, show any documents or otherwise communicate with Oscar in any substantive way.\u201d They were all wearing civilian clothing, the report added.\u00a0<\/p>\n The petition goes on to describe the attack against Belgal, as an ICE agent shot into his car \u201cwhile his son cowered in the back seat.\u201d ICE agents then \u201cpinned him to the ground\u201d and left him semi-conscious, without aid. Only later, when he woke up in a hospital, did the agents identify themselves as ICE officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Days later, the petition explains, the bullet remains lodged in his neck, and Belgal has \u201cexperienced a loss of sensation in half of his face, as well as hearing loss in his left ear, and has not received surgery to remove the bullet from his neck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawyers from the Legal Aid Society said Thursday that ICE has held Belgal in solitary confinement<\/a>, under 24-hour lockdown. Initially detained in New Jersey, he was moved on October 9 to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn \u2013 the same jail where former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is being held.<\/p>\n Legal Aid Society lawyers said Wednesday<\/a> that this is \u201ca facility notorious for medical neglect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith a bullet still lodged in his neck and his serious medical needs unmet, every additional day in custody puts him at further risk. The Court must intervene and order his immediate release,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Belgal\u2019s shooting last week spurred a renewal of protests against ICE in New York City. Protestors demanded an end to ICE\u2019s presence in the city and called for the abolition of the agency. In addition, demonstrators have called for an end to ICE\u2019s use of local parking lots<\/a> \u2013 and for city police commissioner Jessica Tisch to resign<\/a>. Activists who attended a Manhattan protest that erupted the night of the shooting reported seeing NYPD<\/a> \u201chelping the ICE vehicles whisk away our neighbors and come in and out of the hospital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This article<\/a> was originally published by Truthout<\/a> and is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)<\/a>. Please maintain all links and credits in accordance with our republishing guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Shireen Akram-Boshar This article was originally published by Truthout Lawyers for Oscar Belgal have called for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-375021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375021","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=375021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}