Protesters gathered outside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center on Oct. 13 to condemn ICE’s treatment of immigrants in federal custody, rallying in solidarity with Oscar Belgal , a 28-year-old father who was shot in the neck by an ICE agent in Marble Hill last week while his 5-year-old son sat in the back of his car. Now held in solitary confinement at the Sunset Park prison, Belgal has a bullet lodged in his neck and, according to immigrant advocacy groups, has been denied adequate medical care.

MDC began accepting ICE detainees on June 20, 2025, after the Department of Homeland Security signed an interagency agreement with the Bureau of Prisons to house them at the facility, making it the only long-term ICE detention center in New York City. Currently, about 200 immigrants are held at MDC, including Belgal, whose case has drawn renewed attention to conditions inside the facility.

According to a statement issued by the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York, Belgal has not received adequate medical care. He said the left side of his face is numb and he can barely hear out of his left ear. He also has a shoulder wound caused by shattered glass during his arrest. Belgal said he has not eaten a single meal since his arrest and has been told the only water available to him comes from a bathroom sink.

The rally preceded the MDC Brooklyn Community Support group’s weekly Tuesday vigil , which for the past year and a half has brought together local prison justice groups, immigrant rights groups, faith leaders, concerned neighbors and people currently and formerly detained at MDC to protest inhumane conditions and demand a halt to the intake of immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Holding signs reading “ICE Out of NYC” and “Free Belgal,” coalition members and local lawmakers gathered outside the prison to call for justice. During the rally, incarcerated people could be heard banging on the windows, and attendees waved back in response.

Anna Sugrue, co-founder and co-director of the Remedy Project , a youth-led prisoners’ rights advocacy group, told rally attendees that Belgal’s treatment was consistent with reports of torturous conditions at MDC shared by incarcerated people. Those reports included medical neglect, with doctors unavailable after 5 p.m. and on weekends, rotten food, staff retaliation and civil rights abuses.

“We cannot tolerate these conditions in our borough and in our city, and we cannot trust the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, to maintain basic humane standards of living in this facility," Sugrue said. "It's up to us here to demand these humane conditions on behalf of the people behind us, and not stop until these demands are met."

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams condemned the shooting and detention of Belgal, saying nothing justified shooting someone several times in front of their child and then holding them in solitary confinement with a bullet in their neck. Williams also criticized President Donald Trump and federal officials for using faith and government power to justify violence in an effort to strip Black and Brown people of their humanity.

“You should not be in solitary confinement with a bullet in your neck after you've been shot with your child in the car. We should not have to say that in the United States of America in 2026. If these things were occurring in any other country, we would be sitting down, figuring out how we intervene to assist those folks. But we have liars, thieves, convicted crooks who are in charge of an agency that can be as violent as they want to be,” Williams said, vowing to stand up against the Trump administration’s cruelty and protect all immigrants.

“We're going to stand here and fight for everyone who's behind us, including Oscar, who is in solitary confinement with a bullet in his neck after being shot in front of his five-year-old child in a car on a busy street, at 4 p.m. picking his child up," Williams went on. "That is an incredibly insane statement to have to say in Trump's America. But that's where we are, and I'm so proud to be a part of the better America.”

Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander said the danger ICE poses to children, including Belgal’s 5-year-old son, was not an isolated case. He shared that for the past couple of months, he has been attending detained juvenile dockets, where minors must appear in deportation proceedings.

Detained minors have either been separated from their parents, held despite having relatives ready to care for them, or used as bait to pressure their parents to come forward, only to end up detained or deported themselves. Although the Trump administration canceled funding for legal services intended to provide children with legal representation, minors, some of whom do not speak English, must appear before an immigration judge without a lawyer to help them navigate their cases.

“We are living with an immigration system paid for with our tax dollars, by our government, in our name, that is putting immigrant children in harm's way every single day. And last week, it was with a hail of bullets that could have killed that kid, for, as we hear, no reason that has been presented," Lander said. "Let's be clear: no reason that could justify endangering the life of a child."

City Council Member Alexa Avilés, whose district includes Sunset Park, noted that MDC has long been a site of pain for incarcerated people and their families. The facility, which currently houses high-profile inmates including former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Luigi Mangione, has long been plagued by serious issues . In 2019, a power outage left prisoners without heat in the dead of winter, prompting national outrage. In 2024, a federal judge described conditions at the facility as “barbaric.”

“The conditions in this facility have been persistently horrific, and this needs to end. If the state cannot care for the people in its custody, it has no business holding people in its custody,” Avilés said, calling for solidarity in the fight against Trump’s inhumane deportation agenda and thanking MDC Brooklyn Community Support for its weekly vigils, which serve as a reminder not to lose faith amid cruelty.