Protests Erupt Against Immigration Enforcement; Authorities Claim Agents Felt Lives Threatened

NEW YORK — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in New York resulted in an agent firing shots at a vehicle carrying a 5-year-old child, injuring the driver and sparking widespread public outrage and political backlash.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT) on the 9th (local time), the shooting occurred at around 4 p.m. the previous day in the Marble Hill neighborhood of northern Manhattan as ICE agents attempted to arrest a 28-year-old Dominican Republic national.

The man was inside the vehicle with a 5-year-old child, believed to be his son.

According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), immigration enforcement agents fired a total of seven shots toward the vehicle. The man sustained a gunshot wound to the neck, just below his ear, and was transported to a hospital.

His injuries were reported to not be life-threatening, and the child, who was seated in the back, was uninjured.

A witness reported hearing gunshots before seeing the vehicle crash into a concrete barrier. The witness added that the driver emerged holding his neck and shouting in Spanish, while the child in the back seat was crying.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, stated that the incident occurred during a targeted enforcement operation against undocumented immigrants.

ICE claimed that the man is connected to a gang involved in thefts utilizing weapons and small motorcycles.

However, controversy has escalated because the shooting took place in a densely populated residential and school area during school dismissal hours, with a 5-year-old child present at the scene.

Protests condemning the immigration enforcement erupted at the shooting site and outside a nearby hospital.

Local political leaders also strongly pushed back, with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul directly lodging protests with President Donald Trump.

In a social media post, Mayor Mamdani denounced the incident as an "unacceptable and extremely grave situation" and demanded that "ICE must be abolished."

During a press conference late that night, Mamdani stated that he had called President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, speaking with them for about two hours to urge the release of the wounded man, but was unsuccessful.

Governor Hochul also announced that she contacted President Trump and Secretary Mullin to convey her protest regarding the incident.

"On behalf of New Yorkers, I expressed our outrage and called for an end to ICE's enforcement operations in New York," Hochul said, adding that she also demanded the release of body camera footage from the time of the shooting to uncover the truth.

In response, Marcos Charles, head of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), held a press conference in Washington, D.C., countering that agents opened fire because they felt their lives were threatened during the arrest of the undocumented immigrant.

Secretary Mullin asserted at the briefing that while the agents were unaware that a child was inside the vehicle, the suspect attempted to flee from enforcement despite knowing the child was accompanying him.

Since entering his second term, the Trump administration has aggressively pursued large-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants as a core national policy, intensifying enforcement operations in major cities.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]