Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Deportation of Dominican National Who Accelerated Toward ICE With Child in Car

A federal judge on Friday temporarily barred the government from deporting or transferring Oscar Belgal, the 28-year-old Dominican national ICE officers shot Thursday afternoon in Marble Hill after he accelerated his vehicle toward them with a 5-year-old boy in the back seat.

U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken, an Obama appointee, issued the temporary restraining order while Belgal’s habeas petition challenging his detention is pending. The order states Belgal cannot be removed from the United States without a court order and cannot be transferred outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey without prior court approval. Court papers list him as Oscar Bergal. DHS and police have used Belgal. Officials said he may have used aliases. A hearing followed before Judge John P. Cronan in the Southern District of New York, docket 26 Civ. 8928. The petition names Kenneth Genalo, acting ICE field office director in New York, among the respondents.

DHS said officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation at about 4 p.m. Thursday to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic who had a prior conviction for grand larceny and prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession, and weapons possession. DHS also alleged ties to the Trinitarios gang, the same gang it said shot a Customs and Border Protection officer last year. Officers used vehicles to box in Belgal’s Honda Civic. Senior ICE official Marcos Charles said Friday that Belgal then accelerated toward the officers. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said he pulled the vehicle forward and that at least one officer fired seven rounds, striking him below the left ear. The boy in the back seat was not injured. Tisch said police believe the child is Belgal’s son.

Charles said agents did not know a child was in the car when they fired. He said Belgal did know and chose to put the boy at risk by attempting to flee. “Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” Charles said. Belgal was treated at a hospital and then taken into ICE custody. Lawyers for Make the Road New York told the court Friday that he still has a bullet in his body, remains in pain, and is held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after a night in New Jersey. They said they could not locate him for nearly a day after the shooting.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted Thursday night that ICE had “shot a New Yorker” while a 5-year-old was in the car and that “ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.” He said he spent two hours on the phone with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking Belgal’s release and that those efforts failed. A White House official confirmed the call took place. Mullin said Friday the government offered to release Belgal if the NYPD took custody and that the mayor refused. Mullin described Belgal as a “thug” and “the worst of the worst” and said Mamdani’s statements “are dangerous and incite hostility.” Gov. Kathy Hochul also called for a halt to ICE operations in the city.

The NYPD released body-camera video of officers arriving after the shots. The department was not involved in the shooting. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said her office is investigating the incident.