A man has been injured by shots fired by an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during an operation carried out this Thursday in the New York neighborhood of Marble Hill. The person hit by the bullets was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remains conscious and under medical supervision.
The armed incident took place around 4:00 PM (local time) in a residential area located between Upper Manhattan and the southern tip of the Bronx.
In an official note, ICE has defended the use of force by stating that the intervention aimed to apprehend a "undocumented criminal" originally from the Dominican Republic, with a prior conviction for grand theft and several arrests for assault, robbery, and possession of drugs and weapons.
The agency has also emphasized that the suspect has ties to the Trinitarios gang, which it identifies as the same group that "brutally shot a Border Patrol (CBP) agent last year."
ICE has directly blamed local authorities, recalling that this man had already been arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in December 2023, but was released a few days later "due to reckless Democratic sanctuary policies that endanger the lives of Americans."
In the statement, the immigration agency argues that "when radical politicians (supporters of sanctuary policies) release dangerous illegal aliens back onto the streets, our agents are forced to make arrests in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments," and defends that its officials should not jeopardize their safety "because politicians refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement."
Regarding the development of the operation, ICE has confirmed that one of its agents opened fire and injured the suspect. The institution claims that the personnel provided immediate medical assistance and that the man remains alive in a local healthcare facility. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have arrived at the scene to clarify what happened.
Political reaction and increase in immigration pressure
The version offered by the agency clashes with the strong indignation that the operation has generated among state leaders. The mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, has denounced that the agents surrounded the suspect's car, in which a five-year-old minor was traveling who did not suffer physical harm, before making "multiple shots." Mamdani has labeled the intervention as "unconscionable and extremely serious" and has announced that he will demand from President Donald Trump the cessation of all ICE operations in the city. "I will not stand idly by while ICE agents terrorize our communities," he has warned.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has demanded from federal authorities "a complete and transparent explanation" about the circumstances of the shooting. In turn, the president of the City Council, Julie Menin, has requested urgent clarifications and has expressed her concern for "the immense anxiety and uncertainty" that ICE's actions generate among the immigrant population of the city.
The incident occurs at a time of tightening immigration policies promoted by the Donald Trump Administration. According to the newspaper 'The New York Times', since taking office in January 2025, operational pressure has intensified, with more arrests through traffic stops and at least two dozen people hit by gunfire from federal immigration agents, with six fatalities, three of whom were U.S. citizens.
Data from the Deportation Data Project, an initiative of the University of California in Berkeley and Los Angeles —which collects and disseminates public and anonymous databases on the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws— indicates that arrests made by this federal agency in the state of New York increased from 865 in April to 1,552 in July.