Trump and ICE treat Marble Hill like a war zone for profit

By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso · October 10, 2026

Mayor Zohran Mamdani demanded an ICE freeze after an agent shot Oscar Belgal in front of his son, but the Trump administration chose violence and fees over safety.

The horror of this story is not the criminal record of a man. It is the five-year-old boy in the backseat. He sat there while a federal agent fired seven shots into his father's car. The Trump administration is wrong because it has turned immigration enforcement into a blood sport. They have decided that the only way to handle a "criminal illegal alien" is to treat a residential neighborhood like a combat zone. This is not law enforcement. It is terror.

Seven shots in the afternoon

The shooting happened on October 8, 2026, in Marble Hill. Oscar Belgal is 28 years old. He is a Dominican national. According to ABC7 Eyewitness News, an ICE agent fired seven rounds. A bullet grazed Belgal’s neck.

The Department of Homeland Security says Belgal rammed into other cars. They claim the agents feared for their lives. But the agents did not know a child was in the car. That is the part that makes my blood boil. Qué barbaridad. To fire that many rounds into a vehicle in a neighborhood near a school is madness.

A federal judge has already barred the government from deporting Belgal. As his lawyer Harold Solis told ABC7 Eyewitness News, we resolve disputes in courtrooms, not by shooting fathers in the afternoon.

A two-hour game of chicken

Mayor Zohran Mamdani did what any leader should do. He called the President. CNN reports that Mamdani, President Donald Trump, and Secretary Markwayne Mullin spent two hours on the phone.

Mamdani demanded that Trump end all ICE enforcement in the city. He wanted Belgal released. Trump and Mullin offered a deal. They would release Belgal only if the NYPD took him into custody.

Mamdani refused. A source told CNN there was no warrant for Belgal's arrest. There was no legal basis for the NYPD to hold him. Mullin called the mayor "unrealistic." It is the mayor who is realistic. He knows that ICE operates with impunity.

The price of a body

We must look at the ledger. These raids are not just about "murderers and rapists." They are about money.

The Dossier shows a darker side to the machine. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the government is now collecting fees from the people it hunts. Starting October 16, 2026, ICE will collect an adjusted fee of $5,300 for certain arrested aliens.

The violence in Marble Hill is tethered to this revenue. When you put a price tag on an arrest, the agents are no longer just officers. They are collectors. They are incentivized to find bodies to fill the quotas and the coffers.

This is the same mechanism as the Death of George Floyd. In both cases, a law enforcement officer used lethal force against a person of color.

The government claims Belgal is a danger because of his ties to the Trinitarios gang. They mention his prior conviction. Salon.com notes that ICE blames "radical sanctuary politicians" for putting lives at risk. But no amount of criminal history justifies seven shots in a residential neighborhood with a child present.

The Trump administration will likely use the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to bury Belgal in administrative debt. They will use that $5,300 fee to make his legal defense impossible. They will try to push his removal through while the ink on the judge's stay is still wet. They do not want justice. They want a trophy and a check.

The only just outcome is the immediate abolition of ICE. An agency that shoots fathers in front of their children and bills them for the privilege is not a law enforcement body. It is a predatory machine. Until we stop treating the border and its people as a source of revenue and a target for practice, the streets of New York and the riverbanks of El Paso will remain war zones.

Trump and ICE treat Marble Hill like a war zone for profit

Seven shots in the afternoon

A two-hour game of chicken

The price of a body

Sources