NEW YORK — Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, attacked sanctuary city policies and lashed out at Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a news conference on Friday morning, one day after federal immigration agents shot a man in his car in New York City.

On Thursday afternoon, a federal agent shot and injured a man from the Dominican Republic in the Marble Hill neighborhood of New York City as immigration officers tried to apprehend him. The man, identified by local officials as Oscar Belgal, 28, was in a car with his 5-year-old son when agents surrounded the vehicle on a largely residential street, according to Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner. Federal officials have said Belgal was in the United States illegally, and they sought to highlight his criminal record Friday.

At his news conference, Mullin harshly criticized sanctuary city policies that prohibit local cooperation with immigration enforcement, and took aim at New York’s in particular, saying they make citizens “less safe.” Mullin has frequently criticized cities with similar policies, saying they make it harder for the federal government to detain criminals. He repeatedly described Belgal as a “thug” and “the worst of the worst.”

Mullin and Marcos Charles, a top leader at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, repeatedly accused Belgal of being associated with a gang, and rattled off a list of charges against him, including forcible theft and grand larceny.

Charles accused Belgal of accelerating his car toward the ICE agents, causing them to fear for their safety and open fire. Video of the shooting verifying ICE’s account has not been made public.

ICE officers were not aware that there was a 5-year-old child in the vehicle, Mullin said. He also said that the officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras and that there is footage. “As the investigation moves forward, as I said, we’ll release the information,” he said.

Mullin said he had spoken with President Donald Trump, who said that Belgal could be released from custody if New York police agreed to take him into custody. But Mullin said that when he spoke to Mamdani, the mayor did not agree to that.

The homeland security secretary also said he spoke last night with Gov. Kathy Hochul. He said Hochul was open to working with the federal government to help them detain 100 criminals who are in the state illegally, if the federal government gave the state notice.

Many details about the shooting in New York City remain unclear, but Tisch said that one agent had fired his weapon seven times. Seven bullet casings were recovered at the scene; the vehicle’s front windshield sustained damage and the back window was shattered, she said.

Belgal was struck in the neck below his left ear and was transported to a nearby hospital by New York City police officers, who were not involved in the shooting, Tisch said. Mullin said that he had been transferred to a detention facility outside New York State, but declined to identify which one.

The shooting follows a string of violent and sometimes deadly incidents involving immigration agents. Last month, an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop in Austin, Texas. Over the summer, immigration agents fatally shot a Mexican man in Houston and a Colombian man in Maine.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Madeleine Ngo and Luis Ferré-Sadurní/Dakota Santiago
c. 2026 The New York Times Company