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WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of incitement in the name of “political theater” Friday over his attacks on immigration officers following the shooting of a suspected migrant gang member in the Bronx a day earlier.
Mullin said he spoke for two hours with Mamdani, who demanded the wounded man, identified by the NYPD as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, be released and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave the city.
“I’m speaking facts. The mayor speaks with a political tone,” Mullin told reporters during a fiery press availability. “His words are dangerous, and incite hostility. It doesn’t help.”
According to the former senator from Oklahoma, President Trump also spoke with the mayor and offered to release Belgal to NYPD custody, only for Mamdani to demand the suspect be put back on the streets.
“We arrest thousands, weekly, that are criminals and he turns a blind eye to it and won’t even stand up for his own NYPD officers, that by the way, protect him every single day,” raged Mullin, who also pushed back on Hizzoner’s description of Belgal as a “New Yorker.”
“You’re going to call that a New Yorker?! I think that’s a far cry. He said that ICE is rotten to the core. Really? When men and women at ICE each day are enforcing the laws that he refuses to enforce.”
Mamdani late Thursday demanded ICE be abolished, blasting the federal agency as “rotten to its core.”
“He said he wants to abolish ICE,” Mullin said. “Well, Mayor, if you abolish ICE, who’s going to take your criminals off the streets of your own town? Who’s going to take the murderers and the thieves and the gangbangers?”
“No, we’re not putting a pause on enforcement. I’m sorry, we’re not. In fact, I’m not sorry,” he added.
“Our job is to enforce the nation’s laws and go after the worst of the worst, and our men and women do a dang good job at it every single day, and we will not stop doing our job.”
Tensions are high between the federal government and local authorities as President Trump prepares to visit Syracuse on Friday afternoon, in a pre-scheduled stop to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
Mamdani has touted his good relationship with the president as a benefit to New Yorkers, but Trump is also a staunch defender of ICE. The mayor’s comments could have a chilling effect.
Here’s the latest on the Bronx ICE shooting:
- ICE agent shoots, wounds ‘criminal illegal’ migrant in NYC with boy, 5, sitting in back of his car: police, sources
- Mamdani grandstands over ICE shooting of gangbanger ‘criminal illegal’ migrant as violent protests erupt in Bronx
- DHS boss rips Mamdani’s ‘dangerous’ words and ‘inciting hostility’ after Bronx ICE shooting: He ‘won’t even stand up for his own NYPD officers’
- AOC calls for ‘full and independent investigation’ into Bronx ICE shooting — while blaming Target for aiding feds
Mullin was visibly angry as he slammed Mamdani for grandstanding in the wake of the shooting, calling it “political theater and he knows it.”
The mayor reacted furiously to Thursday’s incident, claiming ICE agents were endangering New Yorkers.
“We know, and I have said this directly, whether to the president or to the public, ICE undermines public safety. It makes us less safe,” the mayor said on Thursday night.
Belgal was in a car with his 5-year-old son when ICE said he defied orders and used his car as a weapon to “accelerate” at federal vehicles and officers. Federal officials said he was in the country illegally and wanted in connection with gang-related activity. Mullin said ICE agents didn’t know the five-year-old was in the car. The child was not harmed in the shooting.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that seven rounds were fired by at least one ICE agent and made it clear that the “NYPD had no involvement in the federal operation prior to the shooting.”
Belgal was shot in the neck and taken to the hospital. Federal officials said Beglal had a detainer on him and was out on probation.
Mullin also was critical of sanctuary city policies — like the one New York has — that prohibit local cooperation with immigration enforcement and said they make citizens “less safe” and bleed over into other areas.
“The criminal activity doesn’t stay in the sanctuary cities or the sanctuary states,” he said. “It bleeds over to other neighborhoods. It bleeds over to other states. It bleeds over to other areas that they don’t want this criminal activity.”
He placed the blame on politicians for pushing such policies.
“Sanctuary politicians create a safe haven for this to take place, and then it bleeds over. When we see that start happening, then we’ll go in and do an enforcement to get the worst of the worst off the streets,” he said.
