New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani picked the wrong illegal immigrant to defend, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday, saying the man the mayor sought to free came to the U.S. illegally several years ago, amassed a lengthy criminal record and tried to run down ICE officers this week.
Oscar Bengal, 28, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Thursday while they were trying to arrest him.
They say he tried to flee and, when boxed in, smashed several ICE vehicles and drove toward officers, who opened fire.
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Mr. Bengal was grazed in the neck by a bullet or a fragment and was treated at a hospital, then taken to a detention center outside of New York, Mr. Mullin said.
A 5-year-old boy was in the back seat of the vehicle at the time. Local news reports identified him as Mr. Bengal’s son.
The shooting enflamed tensions in New York City, with Mr. Mamdani saying he has spent hours on the phone trying to win Mr. Bengal’s release.
“I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request that ICE agents leave the scene entirely, as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City,” the mayor said.
Mr. Mullin was outraged by the demand and said politicians such as Mr. Mamdani were the ones who emboldened Mr. Bengal to threaten ICE in the first place.
“Sanctuary politicians, they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive,” the secretary said. “You have to ask yourself, why would they release these individuals back onto the streets?”
He said Mr. Bengal came to the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration, though the Department of Homeland Security said it didn’t know when he illegally entered.
His criminal record includes convictions for grand larceny and taking property, and he had prior arrests for robbery, armed theft, drug sales, possession of stolen property and assault.
He was sentenced to probation for his conviction.
Homeland Security said he runs with the Trinitarios gang, some of whose members were involved in the shooting of an off-duty immigration officer last year in New York.
Mr. Mullin said Mr. Bengal is believed to have information about that crime, which is why Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s criminal division, sought him.
They had closed in on him last month, but he “evaded” them.
On Thursday, ICE officers used their vehicles to box in Mr. Bengal, Mr. Mullin said. The secretary said he refused orders to comply, accelerated his vehicle to smash into the ICE vehicles, then “weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers.”
Mr. Mullin said New York should have turned Mr. Bengal over to ICE after his earlier arrests but “chose to release him back onto the streets.”
Mr. Mullin bristled at Mr. Mamdani’s description of Mr. Bengal as a “New Yorker.”
“I’m sorry, he’s from the Dominican Republic. He came to this country illegally a few years ago, and ever since he’s committed crime after crime after crime,” the secretary said.
ICE critics also had complained that the officers involved Thursday wore construction-style safety vests and masks. New York state adopted a law prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks while conducting their duties, but it has been blocked by a federal judge who said it interfered with national government priorities.
Mr. Mullin also complained of Mr. Mamdani’s statement that ICE has “killed far more of our neighbors than they could ever have claimed to save.”
He pointed to dozens of homicide suspects, kidnappers and other serious felons ICE has asked New York state to turn over.
“Seven out of the 10 safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with ICE,” Homeland Security said in a memo detailing Thursday’s shooting.
DHS has come under intense criticism for past shootings into vehicles. In January, an ICE officer killed Renee Good, an American citizen, after a confrontation in her SUV. As an ICE officer was ordering her to get out, she accelerated and bumped another officer, who opened fire.
After ICE shootings during other traffic stop encounters where the men shot weren’t the targets for arrest, ICE briefly limited traffic stop arrests.
More recently, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division adopted a policy of not pursuing fleeing vehicles, according to The Associated Press.
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