Obama-appointed judge blocks deportation of illegal immigrant dramatically shot by ICE in New York City

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By WILL POTTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER 21:05 09 Oct 2026, updated 21:23 09 Oct 2026

A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama has blocked the deportation of a criminal illegal migrant who was shot by an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agent in New York City.

Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled on Friday that Oscar Bergal, 28, cannot immediately be deported back to the Dominican Republic after he survived the shooting in the Bronx on Thursday.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Bergal is an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal history, including arrests for grand larceny, assault and robbery, and known affiliations with the Trinitarios gang.

Federal agents were reportedly targeting Bergal as part of an enforcement operation in New York City, including probing the Trinitarios gang’s involvement in a moped shooting in the city.

After Bergal was shot on Thursday, he was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and officials said he has since been released and is being detained by ICE.

With Bergal in custody, the migrant’s attorneys filed a challenge to his detention, and Judge Oetken subsequently ruled that Bergal cannot be removed from the United States while that challenge is pending.

The judge said he was making the ruling ‘in order to preserve the court’s jurisdiction’, as he also restricted Bergal’s transfers to only include facilities in the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York.

The order comes after Bergal’s shooting sparked outrage in New York City, as thousands joined protests against ICE’s activities in the Big Apple led by socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Details of how Bergal was shot are still unfolding, with officials saying an ICE agent discharged his weapon during an enforcement raid at around 4pm on Thursday.

Bergal was struck in the neck, as his five-year-old son sat in the backseat of his car nearby.

ICE officials alleged on Friday that Bergal was shot because he ‘weaponized his vehicle’ and drove it at agents.

Marcos Charles, the executive director of ICE removal operations, said the government would pursue criminal charges against Bergal, and said ICE ‘will continue to try to remove him from this country as quickly as possible following his charges.’

When Bergal was released from hospital hours after the shooting, his attorney’s said a fleet of ICE vehicles quickly transferred him to an unknown location, and they have not been able to get hold of him since, reports Courthouse News.

Bergal’s attorneys said in a court filing on Friday morning that they had ‘grave concerns for his health and well-being’, and said his name was not appearing on ICE’s online detainee portal.

Despite Oetken’s ruling requiring Bergal to remain within the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, it appears that ICE officials may have already moved him outside the jurisdiction.

Charles said on Friday morning that ‘because of Bergal’s lengthy criminal history and known fleeing, we placed him in a detention facility outside of the state of New York.’ It is unclear where he was moved to, and the Daily Mail has contacted ICE for comment on the case.

Bergal had previously been arrested on a robbery charge in 2023, later pleaded guilty to grand larceny and was sentenced to probation. He was later arrested on a drug-sale charge that hasn’t yet been resolved, and pleaded not guilty in the drug case.

At a protest on Thursday evening, anti-ICE activists clashed with law enforcement in the Bronx, as Mamdani led condemnations over the shooting.

‘This city wants ICE out,’ the mayor declared as the protests raged. ‘All they do is terrorize this city.’

‘There is no justification for what we’ve seen today,’ he added.

Mamdani described the incident as ‘unconscionable and incredibly serious’ in a social media post, adding that his ‘thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery.’

The mayor said he later spoke with President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to demand that ICE agents be removed from the city, but his efforts were unsuccessful.

‘Now I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request [is] that ICE agents leave the scene entirely — as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City,’ he said.

‘We know, and I have said this directly, whether to the president or to the public, ICE undermines public safety. It makes us less safe,’ he argued.

Mamdani also said he tried to negotiate Belgal’s release from custody, but the man had been ‘whisked away’ from the hospital moments before the mayor’s press conference.

‘Let me say this plainly, what happened today was an outrage,’ Mamdani said.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also revealed on social media that she had spoken with Trump and Mullin about the shooting.

‘I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,’ she wrote.

‘I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.’

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