Protesters accuse Bronx Target of being staging area for ICE agents after shooting in Marble Hill

Protesters rallied outside a Target in the Bronx on Tuesday after they say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used the store's parking lot as a staging area.

Community leaders and elected officials were at the store's Marble Hill location on 225th Street for a news conference, less than a week after an ICE agent shot a man across the highway from the store and shopping plaza. The lot has become an unexpected battleground in the fight between New York's sanctuary city policies and federal immigration enforcement.

"Don't shop at Target. They're telling us they only care about your dollars. They do not care about you," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said.

"My constituents are telling me they're scared," state Sen. Gustavo Rivera said.

A Target spokesperson said the shooting was not on Target's property or adjacent to the property.

"Target has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency," a Target spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Kingsbridge Associates LLC., the co-owner along with Target of the Shops at Marble Hill, said the property has not, and will not, cooperate with ICE.

"We were unaware of any ICE or Federal enforcement presence or activity at the Shops at Marble Hill before we were informed by yourselves and community members last week. We certainly never authorized any activity by these agencies," read a letter to elected officials.

It also said it has directed its security guards to look out for ICE activity and that they have not seen anything since becoming aware last week.

Some demonstrators said they want a similar denunciation from Target.

"They keep saying there is no formal collaboration, but if something is going on in your house and you turn a blind eye, you are as guilty as the party you're housing," said Tamika Mallory, co-founder of the group Until Freedom.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said a review of the shooting will include ICE's alleged use of a privately owned parking lot as a staging location.

"ICE continues to use privately owned parking lots as staging locations," Mamdani said. "We have an Executive Order 13 that we've put forward to ensure that there is no complicity and collaboration between the actions of our city government and ICE. But now, when it comes to privately owned locations, that is another place that we are focused on and looking to see what we can do to prevent."

The Department of Homeland Security would not say if ICE is using the Target Marble Hill lot.

"Law enforcement operations are conducted in accordance with the U.S. Constitution and all applicable federal laws," a spokesperson said in a statement.

According to DHS, federal agents in plainclothes were trying to take Oscar Belgal, 28, into custody on Thursday when he was shot. New York police officers at the scene said shots were fired into Belgal's vehicle while his 5-year-old son was sitting in the back seat.

Belgal was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the child was not injured, police said.

DHS said Belgal is from the Dominican Republic and in the U.S. illegally. It also said he has ties to the Trinitarios gang.

Immigration officials have defended the shooting, saying Belgal refused to exit the vehicle and the agent didn't know there was a child in the backseat.

On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked Belgal from being deported.

Belgal's shooting sparked protests. There were demonstrations on Friday in Foley Square and Marble Hill and a rally in Herald Square, where community members, immigrant advocates, and elected officials slammed the actions of the federal agents.