Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier believes that the New York police departments’ conduct towards protesters after an ICE agent shot and wounded a man in the district she is running to represent violated “the spirit, if not the letter” of the city’s sanctuary laws. These rules ban local police from helping federal immigration authorities in civil immigration enforcement operations.

Protests broke out in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood after a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican man, while he was sitting in his car with a five-year-old in the backseat. The child was physically unharmed, and Belgal was taken to the hospital. He was reported as being in stable condition, before ICE reportedly took him into custody again. The Department of Homeland Security has said Belgal was undocumented.

During Thursday night’s demonstration, which drew a few hundred New Yorkers, including Avila Chevalier, the NYPD set up barricades and clashed with protesters who were demanding ICE leave their neighborhood. Police had also helped carry Belgal to an unmarked car, where they laid him in the backseat while he was still handcuffed.

Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, said during a Thursday press conference that the NYPD was not involved in the federal immigration operation prior to the shooting. Tisch said officers arrived for the purpose of preserving evidence. She also referred to Belgal’s previous criminal record during the event.

Avila Chevalier said in a phone interview on Friday that the police commissioner’s mention of Belgal’s prior arrests unfairly villainized him and “showed that Tisch was more interested in peddling the narrative of the Trump administration than in upholding sanctuary policies”. The NYPD said in a statement that they always provide such information, and that many news outlets had asked about Belgal’s criminal history.

Avila Chevalier also said the police’s “inaction” in protecting protesters was a failure to uphold the spirit of the city’s sanctuary laws. She wrote on X earlier on Friday: “The NYPD spent more time protecting a militia that just shot someone than protecting New Yorkers.”

In the interview, Avila Chevalier appeared less concerned with the minutia of the city’s sanctuary law and more interested in getting rid of ICE entirely. “We wouldn’t need sanctuary policies if ICE didn’t exist,” she said. “The clearest solution here is the bold one: to demand that ICE be abolished.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani also reiterated calls to abolish ICE and has referred to Thursday’s shooting as “unconscionable”. But he is facing pressure from progressives over reforming the NYPD in the wake of anti-ICE protests. Many immigration advocates, including Avila Chevalier, are calling for Tisch to step down and for the disbanding of the strategic response group (SRG), a rapid response unit within the NYPD that has been criticized for cracking down harshly on protests.

Mamdani has repeatedly promised to disband the SRG, although that has not yet happened. He has so far shown no indication that he would remove Tisch from her role. Avila Chevalier acknowledged her differences with the mayor on these issues but noted: “It is my duty as someone who was elected to represent this district to echo the demands of people in my district,” she said. “I would not be a good partner to [Mamdani] if I weren’t doing that.”

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. However, in an interview with the New York Times on Friday, Mamdani affirmed that Tisch would remain in charge of his police force but condemned officers’ aggression towards Avila Chevalier: “I do not think it is acceptable to throw anyone to the ground in our city,” he said. “I believe that to be true when it applies to the congresswoman-elect and, frankly, any New Yorker.”

Avila Chevalier was on the front lines of Thursday’s protest, and videos circling social media showed her being knocked to the ground by a police officer. She says she “felt a hand grab and then throw [her] down to the ground”.

“At some point, I felt like my feet were not touching the ground. I felt like I flew,” she said, adding that she is “thankfully OK” but was “in some pain” the day earlier. Avila Chevalier had said she was trying to convince police that adding barricades was escalating the situation: “They were literally in a tug of war with people over these barricades,” she said. “People were being hurt and pushed back.”

The police arrested five protesters and said demonstrators “agitated and pushed over barriers” and “repeatedly refused verbal commands to disperse”. The NYPD also said that Avila Chevalier was pushed back by officers in an attempt to prevent the crowd from trampling the captain.

On Friday, Avila Chevalier was distraught that Belgal’s lawyers had not been able to locate him. “That is deeply concerning to me,” she said.

Avila Chevalier is a longtime organizer, who was also present at Columbia University’s pro-Palestine encampments, but said she isn’t used to this level of police aggression. She remains a strong believer in the impact of protest. “So much of the power given to our electeds comes from the space that constituents and organizers give us to be bold and to make those demands,” she said. “To know I was there with my community – that is what made me feel not only that I can do this but that this is what my community is demanding of us.”