Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said New York met 14,766 ICE detainers on jailed criminal illegal immigrants with absolute silence, a snub he tied to sanctuary policies and a vehicle ramming that put a child and officers at risk.

Speaking Friday at Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, Mullin said the detainers cover people already locked up in New York who carry extensive criminal records. Federal officials reported the state has given no cooperation on those requests.

The New York Post, citing Mullin’s briefing, reported the people behind those detainers face a combined 47,750 felony charges. Mullin made the point plain.

"We have leveled 14,766 detainers for the state of New York, that means individuals that are locked up that have extensive criminal backgrounds, that the state of New York has in custody,"

Mullin said. He followed with the core charge.

"Silence, absolute silence is what we’ve got from New York off of those detainers."

He framed the non-response as a choice by sanctuary politicians who will not clear their own streets. If they refuse, he said, President Trump has made clear the federal government will act.

Agents shoot suspect after vehicle ramming in Marble Hill

The briefing came a day after ICE agents shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal during a stop in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood. Officials said a five-year-old believed to be his son was in the vehicle. The child was not reported injured.

Belgal, a Dominican national, was shot in the neck, remained conscious, and was later moved to a secure facility outside New York, Mullin said. Marcos Charles, executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, described what agents faced.

"This individual yesterday decided to not comply with lawful orders, given by federal law enforcement officers, ICE officers, good men and women that are out there every day enforcing immigration laws,"

Charles said. He added that Belgal refused orders to get out of the vehicle, then accelerated, struck two government vehicles, and drove toward other officers.

Charles said agents had tried to arrest Belgal in September and that Belgal fled. Charles also said Belgal has New York charges for robbery, grand larceny, and theft while armed with a deadly weapon.

Mullin rejected attempts to cast the agents as the problem. He said officers did not know a child was inside the car. Belgal did.

"We weren’t aware the child was in the car I can tell you that. But do you know who was? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in his car,"

Mullin said. He pressed the point further.

"Oscar chose to accelerate at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as it appears he was going towards officers. And so the public outcry should also be towards this criminal, this thug, this gangbanger, this possible murderer, the outrage should be with him for endangering the five year old."

Patterns like this surface when illegal immigrants with violent records stay free after earlier encounters, as seen when a Sacramento woman was stalked and killed by a man released at the border.

Mamdani calls to abolish ICE after the shooting

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting on Thursday and again called for ICE to be abolished. He said there was no explanation for agents firing into a car with a five-year-old inside.

Mullin called that language dangerous and said it incites hostility. He put a direct question back to the mayor: if you abolish ICE, who takes criminals off the streets of your own town?

Sanctuary orders that block cooperation create the same friction in other cities, where Boston officers have quietly aided ICE even as city leaders draw hard lines against federal enforcement.

Mullin said the operation was not a special surge. Agents pursue the worst offenders every day of the week, holidays included. There is no ramp-up and no draw-down, he said. They are doing the job.

Released despite a detainer, then an NYPD officer is stabbed

Mullin tied New York’s silence on detainers to real-world harm against local police. He said NYPD officers rank among the finest in the country, then pointed to a recent attack.

"NYPD officers are some of the finest officers we have out there, just last week one was stabbed seven times by illegals,"

Mullin said. He added that one of those involved had a detainer New York released, and both had extensive criminal backgrounds.

That release dated to October 2025, he said. A year later, those same people nearly took an NYPD officer’s life. When local systems free people under federal immigration holds, the public pays the price. Attacks on officers also drive state efforts to toughen penalties, including an Ohio bill that would strip parole from anyone who intentionally kills a law enforcement officer.

Mullin pushed back on coverage he called selective. He said some reporters steer away once they realize the person in question is not someone to defend. He labeled the approach fake news and kept the focus on Belgal’s choices and record.

Fatal violence by illegal immigrants in blue states keeps repeating under soft-release practices, from home invasions to stranger attacks, including a Brazilian illegal immigrant arrested in Massachusetts after allegedly strangling a woman in her home.

Routine enforcement against the worst offenders

Mullin described the Marble Hill stop as standard pursuit of serious offenders, not a political show. ICE’s daily work continues to net people tied to murder, child abuse, and cartel activity in other parts of the country, including an ICE-led sweep in Southwest Florida that produced hundreds of arrests.

In New York, the numbers Mullin laid out remain simple. Thousands of detainers. Thousands of felony charges. No answer from the state. A mayor who wants the agency gone. An officer stabbed after a prior release. A child put in a car during a ramming attempt.

When cities and states refuse to hold the worst offenders for federal pickup, agents still go get them. The alternative is more silence, more releases, and more families left to live with the results.

Taxpayers and lawful residents deserve streets cleared of people already in custody on long rap sheets, not another round of political theater that leaves the next officer or child in the path of someone who should already have been gone.