How Much Longer? ICE Shooting in the Bronx Raises Urgent Questions About Accountability

How much longer must immigrant New Yorkers live in fear of federal immigration agents who so willingly shoot first and ask questions later?

On October 8, an ICE agent fired seven shots at a vehicle in the Marble Hill neighborhood, wounding Oscar Belgal while his five-year-old son sat in the back seat. The shooting occurred in a residential neighborhood around the time schools were dismissing students, putting a child and others nearby at risk. What should have been an ordinary afternoon became yet another terrifying encounter with federal immigration enforcement.

Federal officials have attempted to justify the shooting, but no explanation can erase the horrifying reality of what happened: ICE agents opened fire on a vehicle in a residential neighborhood with a five-year-old child inside. This is not what public safety looks like. It is precisely the kind of violence and intimidation that has left immigrant communities living in fear. ICE's increasingly aggressive enforcement tactics, coupled with a disturbing lack of accountability, have created an environment in which armed federal agents operate with seeming impunity. 

At Riverside, we see the consequences of these enforcement practices in the fear and uncertainty experienced by immigrant New Yorkers. Families worry about going to work, attending classes, seeking services, and simply moving through their neighborhoods. No family should have to live in fear of the very government that is supposed to protect its people. Immigrant New Yorkers are our neighbors, coworkers, students, and families. Their safety is inseparable from the safety of our city.

Riverside condemns this shooting and calls on our elected officials—at the city, state, and federal level—to use every tool available to investigate and document what happened, demand answers, and press for structural changes that limit the enforcement tactics that led to this moment. The federal government must be held responsible for the harm its enforcement operations inflict on immigrant communities and on the broader public, and our city must stand firmly for the rights, dignity, and safety of every New Yorker.