Photo of protest for Oscar Belgal following the Oct. 8 ICE shooting.
JAYDEN GONZALEZ/ THE QUADRANGLE
Zendrah Bonnick, Assist. News Editor
On Oct. 8, in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, a member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), opened fire on a car with Oscar Belgal and his 5-year-old son both inside the vehicle.
The agents were dressed in plainclothes and face coverings. ICE officers claimed they shot Belgal, who was unarmed, seven times in “self-defense”.
ICE officials claimed Belgal was attempting to hit them with his vehicle and of “weaponizing” his car. This claim was reminiscent of the one made by ICE earlier this year in response to ICE’s fatal shooting of Renée Good who was unarmed, although ICE alleged, she too attempted to use her vehicle as a weapon.
Similarly, street footage later released of the moments prior to the shooting of Oscar Belgal showed ICE agents, dressed in street clothes and no visible markers indicating they are members of the DHS department, at the side of his car as the car attempted to drive away, which in response to, ICE drew their weapons and pointed at the moving vehicle. Later, the reaction of civilians can be seen.
The Bronx Defenders, the organization representing Belgal gave this statement to the New York Times.
“A family just trying to go about their everyday lives faced terror and violence at the hands of ICE in Marble Hill…ICE’s brutality is emblematic of what the people we represent endure daily — from violent arrests in our communities to neglect and dehumanization in ICE detention,” the Bronx Defenders stated.
Notably the shooting sparked further public outcry, with people denouncing the agency, calling for it to leave or be abolished.
The evening of the shooting, ICE posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) a statement. Which was met with more criticism, being accused of attempting to blame “sanctuary politicians” for the shooting.
“ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation in the Bronx, New York, to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession. He has associations to the Trinitarios gang,” the agency claimed. “This criminal illegal alien was arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023, but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk.”
Belgal was convicted of fourth-degree grand larceny in 2025 and accusation of drug charges, to which the sentence was 5 years’ probation; none of which are justifications for the ICE shooting against Belgal.
Notably, back in 2018 during President Donald J. Trump’s first term, the Trump Administration was accused of falsely claiming people, most often young people, to be “gang members”.
Specifically, according to the American Immigration Council, “As the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) points out in a recent report, the Trump administration is stereotyping immigrant youth as gang members even in the absence of facts…What is most dangerous is that there is no hard and fast definition of what constitutes “gang involvement” in the context of immigration proceedings, which means that officials have a lot of leeway in deeming a young immigrant to be undeserving of relief for ostensibly gang-related reasons.”
While ICE has claimed its presence in communities works towards the goal of entering “dangerous environments,” for “protection,” the United States’ public have increasingly expressed views that they do not want or need them.
According to a poll done by the Honan Strategy Group, a data research center.
“A new poll finds 67% of New York City voters oppose ICE raids, with 55% saying enforcement should stop entirely,” the center found. “Most voters support the city’s sanctuary laws, with 52% saying the NYPD should not assist ICE during immigration raids. Two-thirds of respondents say ICE raids create fear and chaos in immigrant communities, while 30%.”
Similarly, a poll conducted by Pew Research Center, Oct. 26, of this year demonstrates a similar pattern of increasing public disapproval.
“A majority of Americans (56%) now say they have an unfavorable opinion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” Pew Research Center stated. “Majorities of Black (69%), Hispanic (67%) and Asian adults (66%) have a negative opinion of ICE. In each group, views are substantially more negative than they were a year ago. White adults are less likely than other racial and ethnic groups to view the agency negatively, though more now express a negative opinion than a positive one. Nearly half of White adults (49%) have an unfavorable view of ICE.”
In relation to ICE’s use of deportation, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) published a statement by Karla McKanders, Director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute.
McKanders stated, “The Trump administration has created a ‘prison-to-deportation pipeline’ where a routine traffic stop in a Black or Latinx neighborhood becomes a death knell for a person’s immigration status.”
In that same document by the LDF from May of this year, the organization noted,“ICE made 400,000 arrests in 14 months; Black, Latinx and immigrant neighborhoods bore the brunt.”
ICE has not given a stated demographic record for the racial and ethnic demographics of their arrests, or detention centers.
This was not the first instance of ICE shooting civilians or use of excessive force. It is estimated that in 2026 alone ICE has shot at least 25 people.
Additional context around the state of immigration in the Unites States, has been victim to misinformation and false conflations.
ICE’s websites statement on it on history claims, “Despite U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s relatively young age, its functional history – encompassing the broad roles, responsibilities and federal statutes now carried out and enforced by the men and women of ICE – predates the modern birth of the agency by more than 200 years.”
This statement by ICE, is speculated to be made in response to critics and abolitionist movements against ICE citing its recent creation, 2003, as one of main of many indications of ICE not being a necessity.
Contrary to this statement by ICE, immigration historically has not been enforced in similar ways through the nation’s history, ICE’s predecessor Immigration Naturalization Services (INS) was founded in 1933, existing 70 years before it was shut down for the creation of ICE. Notably INS policy did not view immigration as a threat to national security and did not treat it as “counter terrorism,” which ICE identifies its’ work to exist under.
The immigration history timeline documents, “Under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA), enacted by Congress on Oct. 21, 1998, certain Haitian nationals who had been residing in the United States could become legal permanent residents,”
In June of this year, The Supreme Court approved Trump’s restrictions on Haitian Refugees and Syrian Refugees. Notable, Hatiti is existing under a humanitarian crisis, and Syria has been in a volatile state since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024.
Some have identified parallels with ICE targeting and disputation policing of people of color with the police. The United States’ police have historic ties to the practice of ‘slave catching’ from the 1700s that predate the signing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the documenting that codified the practice into written legislation.
“Authorized by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a combination of federal officials and private slave catchers compelled Northern white citizens to cooperate with the arrest of formerly enslaved people, or else risk arrest themselves. The law introduced the brutality of slavery into free Northern communities. The use of armed soldiers in civilian settings, the arrest of free Black people — similar to today’s indiscriminate arrests, which have ensnared immigrants with legally protected status — and the erosion of political liberties long enjoyed by free citizens all presaged the current environment,” an article by Politico states.
To some these similarities are indicative of a pattern whether enacted through the southern strategy or dog whistles, the politics of fear have been weaponized against those identified to be the “other”. Who is categorized as a “terrorist,” “gang member,” “illegal alien,” “gangbanger,” “thug,” “animal,” etc.. To some these titles remain proof of guilt. However, to the many labeled, these titles are relative, depending on whoever has the power, to wield fear against the “other.”