DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismantled CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on live television after she blamed ICE agents for a shooting involving a criminal alien who rammed his vehicle toward federal officers — with his five-year-old son in the car. The exchange laid bare the press corps' instinct to treat immigration enforcement as the problem, not the cartel-linked recidivist who forced the confrontation.
The incident occurred October 8 in the Bronx. ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national who entered the country illegally and has racked up an extensive violent rap sheet in just three years: four felony robbery charges, two felony assault charges, felony grand larceny, two felony drug charges, and ties to the Trinitarios — the same gang linked to the shooting of a CBP officer last year. Belgal had already evaded officers once before, last month. New York's sanctuary policies released him back onto the streets after a December 2023 NYPD arrest, DHS confirmed.
When officers approached with badges displayed and gave lawful commands, Belgal accelerated his SUV, ramming two vehicles and driving toward the agents. An ICE officer opened fire, wounding him. Belgal's five-year-old child was in the vehicle the entire time.
On "Face the Nation," Brennan's instinct was not to ask why a violent gang affiliate would use his own child as a human shield. She asked Mullin: "How come those officers didn't notice that a child was put in that car?" The question assigns moral responsibility to the agents doing their jobs, not the criminal alien who chose to flee.
Mullin didn't bite. "You know who did know the kid was in the vehicle? Oscar!" he said. "As a father of six kids, no way I ever put my kids in danger. I would've gotten out of my vehicle to protect my child. No way I would've been selfish enough. He absolutely was selfish enough to put his child in danger! He's the one who decided to accelerate towards officers. That tells you the type of character Oscar is!"
Mullin told Brennan the ICE agent's body camera footage will be released once the investigation concludes, but cautioned it wouldn't tell the full story on its own. "What you're not seeing is the actual audio footage or a different angle, where you have multiple officers who are approaching this individual named Oscar, with a long, very long extensive rap sheet," he said. NYPD body camera footage from officers who arrived after the incident has already been released.
CBS framed the story as "ICE deportation tactics" returning to the spotlight — a formulation that centers the enforcement, not the crime. The Daily Caller noted that New York City's socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, publicly denounced the shooting and lobbied both Mullin and President Trump for two hours on Thursday night, unsuccessfully demanding Belgal's release.
So the picture is complete: a violent gang-tied illegal alien, freed by sanctuary policy, endangers his own child fleeing federal agents, and the press plus the city's mayor both rush to frame the officers as the villains. Meanwhile, Belgal sits in a detention center, treated for his injuries, and the Bronx protesters who blocked federal vehicles after the shooting face no comparable media scrutiny.
The question isn't why ICE didn't notice the child. The question is why a press corps and a political class keep choosing the side of the criminal over the side of the cop — and what it will take before they stop.
