A federal judge has temporarily barred deportation of a Dominican illegal immigrant wounded by ICE during a Bronx arrest attempt after he accelerated toward officers with a child in the car.
U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken, an Obama appointee, issued a two-page order stopping federal authorities from removing Oscar Belgal, also named Oscar Bergal in court papers, from the United States without a further court order while his petition challenging detention remains pending.
The order also bars transfers outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey without prior court approval. The 28-year-old Dominican national was shot Thursday during a targeted ICE arrest operation in Marble Hill in the Bronx, then treated and later released. His lawyers said a bullet remained in his body.
Fox News Digital reported that NYPD officers released bodycam footage of the aftermath, showing city police responding after the gunfire and taking the wounded man to a hospital. NYPD was not involved in the shooting itself.
The sequence matters. Department of Homeland Security officials said Belgal refused lawful orders during the operation, pulled his vehicle forward, and accelerated toward ICE officers after they used vehicles to block him. At least one officer fired seven rounds. Belgal was struck below the left ear. A 5-year-old boy was inside the vehicle and was unharmed.
Senior ICE official Marcos Charles addressed the encounter Friday at a Washington news conference alongside DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Charles said agents used vehicles to stop Belgal as he tried to drive away, and that Belgal then accelerated toward them.
Charles put the decision in plain terms.
"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,"
He also said agents did not know a child was inside, but that Belgal “was aware.” The boy was unharmed. Belgal survived and received hospital treatment.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, speaking late Thursday near the scene, described the same core facts: Belgal pulled the vehicle forward before at least one officer fired seven rounds and struck him below the left ear.
Cases like this sit inside a wider enforcement fight, including fights over judicial blocks on penalties for illegal immigrants who defy final removal orders.
DHS alleged Belgal had a prior grand larceny conviction and previous arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession, and weapons possession. Officials also alleged ties to the Trinitarios street gang. Those claims come from DHS; the information provided does not supply full court dispositions beyond that summary.
Immigration attorney Harold Solis of the nonprofit Make the Road New York spoke outside the courthouse Friday and rejected the officers’ account on moral and legal grounds.
Solis told reporters the presence of a child and the man’s status as a father should have controlled the response.
"Regardless of whether or not someone has a criminal history, it is not lawful and it is not OK to shoot a father in an afternoon with his son in the back seat,"
He added a second line aimed at process, not the street encounter.
"That is not how we resolve legal disputes in this country. We resolve them in buildings like these, in courtrooms."
That framing treats a refusal to stop and a vehicle accelerated toward officers as a paperwork dispute. ICE described a threat to officers and the public. The child was unharmed. The man was treated and released. Those are the verified facts on the ground.
New York has seen related flashpoints, including cases of illegal immigrants with long arrest records remaining free after violence against officers.
Oetken’s order is narrow and temporary in form, but operationally firm. While the petition challenging detention is pending, Belgal cannot be removed without a court order. Federal authorities also need prior court approval before moving him to any facility outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey.
In a Friday hearing, a judge dismissed a defense application for a temporary restraining order with prejudice after federal prosecutors did not challenge Oetken’s non-deportation directive. The practical result is the same: the man stays in the country, under geographic transfer limits, while litigation continues.
Custody rules for noncitizens remain contested nationwide, including a Supreme Court case on bond hearings for illegal immigrants held by ICE.
Bodycam released by the NYPD shows the post-shooting response, not the decision to fire. City officers arrived after the shots, moved the wounded man, and documented the aftermath. Protests and clashes near the scene followed. Captions tied the Thursday shooting and related protest imagery to October 8, 2026.
Strip away the slogans and the sequence is straightforward. ICE ran a targeted arrest operation against a Dominican national in the Bronx. DHS says he refused lawful orders, tried to drive off, and accelerated toward officers after they boxed in his vehicle. At least one officer fired seven rounds. He was hit below the left ear. His 5-year-old son was in the car and was not hurt. NYPD handled the medical transport. A federal judge then locked in a temporary bar on removal and out-of-area transfers.
Political pressure around the same Bronx episode has already drawn local figures into the fight, including coverage of how city politicians pressed to free the wounded illegal immigrant as protests flared.
None of that changes the officer-safety facts Charles put on the record, or Tisch’s account of the vehicle movement and the seven rounds, or the alleged prior larceny conviction and arrests DHS listed. A courtroom petition does not erase a vehicle driven at law enforcement. A temporary order does not revise what happened on that street in Marble Hill.
Sanctuary politics and courtroom delays have real victims elsewhere, as seen when an illegal immigrant’s murder case drove a congressional fight over sanctuary rules. Here the immediate stakes are simpler: officers who say they faced a threat, a child who walked away unharmed, and a removal pause that keeps a man with an alleged violent and gang-linked record inside the country while lawyers argue.
When illegal immigrants with serious arrest histories force a confrontation during a lawful arrest, the country should back the officers who held the line, not the judge who hits pause on removal.
