An incident occurred in New York, USA, when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent was cracking down on illegal immigrants when he opened fire on a vehicle in which a 5-year-old child was riding, injuring the driver.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and New York Times (NYT) on the 9th (local time), a shooting occurred while ICE agents were trying to arrest a 28-year-old man from the Dominican Republic in the Marble Hill area of northern Manhattan, New York, around 4 p.m.
The man was in the vehicle with a 5-year-old child, believed to be his son, at the time.
According to New York police, immigration enforcement officers fired seven shots at the vehicle, and the man was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck below the ear.
The man was reported to be in non-life-threatening condition, and the child in the backseat was not injured.
One witness said he heard gunshots and then saw the car crash into a concrete barrier, with the driver exiting the vehicle clutching his neck and yelling in Spanish. He added that the child in the back seat was crying.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said this incident occurred during a targeted crackdown on illegal immigrants.
ICE claimed that the man was connected to a gang that committed theft using weapons and small motorcycles.
However, controversy is growing as it became known that the shooting occurred in an area dense with houses and schools when children were leaving school, and that even a 5-year-old child was present at the scene.
Demonstrations against immigration crackdowns took place at the scene of the shooting and at a nearby hospital.
Local political opposition is also growing stronger, with New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani and New York Governor Cathy Hocal protesting directly to President Donald Trump.
In a social media post, Mayor Mamdani condemned the incident, calling it "a very serious situation that cannot be tolerated" and "ICE must be abolished."
He said at a press conference the night before that he had called President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullen to urge the release of the man who was shot for about two hours, but had failed.
Governor Hocal also said that he had contacted President Trump and Secretary Mullin to express his protest regarding this incident.
"On behalf of the citizens of New York, I express my outrage and call for an end to ICE's enforcement operations in New York," said Governor Hocal, adding that he also demanded the release of body camera footage of the shooting to determine the truth of the incident.
In response, ICE Enforcement and Deportation Director Marcos Charles held a press conference in Washington, D.C., and refuted that the agents shot the illegal immigrants because they felt their lives were in danger during the process.
Minister Mullin claimed that the agents at the time did not know that there was a child in the car, but that the man tried to run away from the crackdown even though he knew that the child was in the car.
In its second term in office, the Trump administration has promoted large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants as a key national task and has strengthened crackdowns in major cities.
