On October 8 at 5:30 pm, 28-year-old Oscar Belgal was shot by ICE agent Brenden Cuni of Westchester in broad daylight while he was driving in a car. Present in the car was his 5-year-old son who he had just picked up from school in the Marble Hill neighborhood of NYC.

Oscar Belgal, a 28 year old Dominican immigrant, was surrounded by masked ICE agents and at least one, identified as DHS employee Brenden Cuni, fired at least seven rounds from an AR-15 rifle into the car, shooting Belgal in the neck and narrowly missing his child in the back seat.

Brenden Cuni, in his time as a DHS employee has a long documented history of illegal violence and sadism against immigrants and was deployed as a “specialist” in the Minneapolis ICE invasion.

Oscar Belgal is now in ICE custody and has not been released.

Meanwhile, ICE detention centers are growing and more and more people are dying in them. There is now a ramped up ICE recruiting drive, and an increase in ICE arrest quotas, and increasing calls from prominent MAGA figureheads to deploy ICE agents to “guard the polls” during the midterms.

This is happening in a political context of no legal accountability for ICE agents who commit murder against immigrants and US citizens. We do NOT tolerate ICE in our city.

We call on the NY DA to arrest Brenden Cuni and charge him with attempted murder.

We call on Mayor Mamdani to break off all contact with the Trump administration until Oscar Belgal is released from ICE custody.

We call on all people to join the Target boycott until Target ceases its collaboration with ICE.

We must build the movement to defund and abolish ICE once and for all. ICE operates as an illegal and violent arm of the Federal government outside of any legal accountability or oversight.

FREE OSCAR BELGAL AND ALL PEOPLE IN ICE DETENTION!
DEFUND AND ABOLISH ICE!
PROSECUTE AND JAIL ALL ICE AGENTS WHO HAVE COMMITTED CRIMES!

We will not let Trump’s Gestapo terrorize our city!

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Image: ICE protest, UAW Local 2325. Working Families on Flickr.