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New York's mayor and governor want immigration agents to stop operating in New York City. This is after an ICE agent shot a man there yesterday. Federal officials say the man tried to run agents down. Reporter Steve Kastenbaum says this has set off a fight between the Trump administration and New York officials over the state's sanctuary policies.
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UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Move back.
STEVE KASTENBAUM, BYLINE: It was a chaotic scene in Upper Manhattan where the shooting took place. Police pushed back protesters who surrounded a law enforcement vehicle as it tried to leave the area. The window on the car had been smashed. Speaking outside the hospital where the victim was treated, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the shooting took place in a busy residential area.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: School had just gotten out. The street was crowded with families and children. When ICE agents opened fire, a 5-year-old child - a 5-year-old child - was in the back seat of the car.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whoa.
MAMDANI: Thank God that child is physically unharmed.
KASTENBAUM: Marcos Charles is in charge of enforcement and removal operations at ICE. He said at a briefing in Washington that this was a man who they've tried to arrest in the past. When they cornered him Thursday afternoon, Charles said he refused orders to get out of his car.
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MARCOS CHARLES: 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.
KASTENBAUM: That's when one of the agents opened fire. A bullet fragment hit the man in his neck. Federal officials identified him as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, an undocumented Dominican immigrant with a criminal conviction and several arrests for robbery and other charges. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed he's associated with a gang, and they had an order out for him to be detained.
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MARKWAYNE MULLIN: This individual is a threat to our community. He was on probation. The state of New York knew he was illegal, and they chose to release him back into the streets and into the community.
KASTENBAUM: New York's sanctuary policies prevent local cops from holding immigrants who ICE wants detained so they can be deported. The policy dates back to the Obama years. Daniel Stageman is the director of research at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He said it's the job of police here to fight crime, not enforce federal immigration policy.
DANIEL STAGEMAN: New York City's policies do not prevent federal agencies from imposing those immigration consequences, but they are not the responsibility of New York City's criminal justice agencies.
KASTENBAUM: New York's police department released bodycam footage Friday from officers who arrived at the scene after the shooting. It shows the wounded man on the ground in handcuffs and an ICE agent dressed in a yellow construction vest holding a rifle. The police officers rushed the man to the hospital. The mayor and New York's governor called on ICE to end their activities in the city. For NPR News, I'm Steve Kastenbaum in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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