Markwayne Mullin and ICE officials hold a press conference

[0:14] thank you everyone for being here um we want to make sure that the public has the facts of what [0:21] actually took place yesterday in new york here in a minute i'll have marcos uh charlie charles [0:27] come up and actually give the background on this individual but i want to make it very clear [0:32] sanctuary politicians they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive not for the [0:40] american citizens to be safe underneath president trump he made it very clear he was going to [0:45] restore law and order in our cities in our towns and in our states despite what happens with career [0:53] politicians that put criminals in front of law-abiding citizens when you have sanctuary cities [0:59] and sanctuary politicians you endanger the safety of the public that's not a secret that is exactly what [1:08] takes place and just for an example in new york alone since january 20th of 2025 to september of this [1:19] year we have leveled 14 766 detainers for this for the state of new york these that means individuals [1:30] that are locked up that have criminal extensive criminal backgrounds that the state of new york [1:38] has in custody we've asked for 14 766 detainers to be honored because these are illegals that should [1:44] never be released back on the streets silence absolute silence is what we've got from new york [1:54] off of those retainers to give you a perspective those 14 766 detainers on criminals that are currently [2:02] locked up it represents 47 750 felony charges so you have to ask yourself why would they release these [2:15] individuals back onto the streets they're illegals they should they have no right to be back into the [2:22] united states they've committed a crime we know that they're the worst the worst and through ice and dhs [2:31] our men and women out there every day we're enforcing our nation's laws we're not picking and choosing [2:38] which laws to enforce like these sanctuary politicians we're enforcing our nation's laws why is that [2:45] controversial why would that be controversial we should all want law and order on our streets [2:52] here in a little bit marcos is going to lay out who this gentleman actually is and keep in mind [3:03] just last week two nybd officers the finest and i mean that sincerely the president has made this [3:13] very clear nypd officers are some of the finest officers we have out there just last week one was [3:21] stabbed seven times by illegals one that we had a detainer on that new york released both had extensive [3:34] criminal backgrounds did the mayor of new york say anything about that did the individuals that's in [3:43] the streets demanding justice for this criminal that we picked up yesterday did anybody come out for [3:51] the officer that was stabbed seven times by these criminals not a word was said not a word was said by [3:58] the mayor not a word was said by the governor not a word was said by the individuals that supposedly want [4:03] justice on their streets they're absolutely silent when an nypd officer was stabbed seven times from [4:09] known criminals that was released back on the streets by new york after we put a detainer on the [4:16] individual their background the individual's background just to give you a little bit of [4:24] information on who the individuals were that stabbed the nypd officers one was charged with reckless [4:31] endangerment reckless driving unlawful fleeing from a police officer in a motor vehicle possession of [4:36] uh burglary tools criminal possession of controlled substance criminal possession of weapon involving [4:41] a loaded firearm and second degree uh weapons charges that's one once again released back on the [4:49] streets by new york the second individual criminal possession of stolen property possession of burglar [4:55] tools grand larson and criminal possession of weapon once again we had detainers and they were released [5:02] back on the streets that was october of 2025 a year later they almost took the life of nypd officers the [5:14] outrage should be the same if you actually want justice you should want justice for actually everyone [5:22] it's shameful that you have a mayor that goes out there and puts criminals over law-abiding citizens [5:28] that's why today in this press conference i'm going to let marcos charles come up and tell you exactly [5:35] who this individual is then i'll return back to the mic after that good morning this individual [5:44] yesterday decided to not comply with lawful orders given by federal law enforcement officers ice officers [5:55] good men and women that are out there every day enforcing immigration laws they are out there looking [6:01] for an individual by the name of oscar bergal mr bergal was a target of an hsi investigation mr bergal [6:15] is associated with a gang in new york mr bergal has evaded law enforcement before when we attempted [6:24] to arrest him in september mr bergal has charges in new york for robbery grand larceny theft armed with a deadly [6:40] weapon conviction uh forcible theft large grand larceny fourth in the fourth and property taken from person [6:56] a class e felony and on april 5th 2025 he was sentenced to five years of probation for that we had a [7:07] detainer on him but he's now in custody after the actions that were taken yesterday by our ice officers [7:16] mr bergal is that subject of that of that investigation from hsi involved in the shooting of cvp officer two years ago [7:27] i believe in the lincoln heights area he's known the gang that he runs with is known for theft using [7:36] weapons and mopeds his yesterday we attempted to arrest mr bergal in the attempt we used our vehicles to [7:48] block him in mr bergal refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle he then accelerated his vehicle smashing into [7:57] two of our government ice vehicles and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate [8:05] going towards other officers our officers using their training and believing that their life and the [8:13] life of the partners in general public were in danger used their training and fired weapons mr bergal [8:21] bergal was struck by one of the bullets or fragments superficially in the neck he stopped his vehicle [8:31] we arrested him rendered first aid and then took him to the hospital because of mr bergal's lengthy [8:40] criminal history and known fleeing we placed him in a detention facility outside of the state of new york [8:48] we will continue to prosecute this individual to the fullest we will continue to put him in place [9:01] him in removal proceedings and we will continue to try to remove him from this country as quickly as [9:06] possible following his charges thank you i want to reiterate a couple of things one dhs through all [9:17] our 80 000 law enforcement agencies through hsi ero cvp ice and all our other components we go after the [9:28] worst the worst every single day every single day our goal is to get them off the streets [9:37] sanctuary politicians refuse to take care of their own streets president trump has made it very clear [9:43] we will this individual is a threat to our community as you heard we had an entertainer on [9:50] him he was on probation the state of new york knew he was illegal and they chose to release him back into [9:58] the streets and to the community he also was known to be affiliated with a gang that was [10:05] um associated with shooting a cvp officer last year we had belief that oscar um has either indirect or [10:17] direct knowledge of the shooting and that's why he became a target when we tried to pick him up in [10:24] september he fled we did not pursue him in this particular case we had taken all of our cautions to keep [10:34] him from from fleeing he went ahead and fleed because of the safety uh we escalated um or because of his [10:41] escalation we had to um use force i i i want to push back on a couple of things the mayor yesterday did a [10:52] press conference and by the way only took one question i can assure you i'll take questions it'll be [10:56] more than one all right he said that ice quote has killed more of our neighbors than they claim to save [11:08] that's a direct quote from the mayor last night ice has killed more of our neighbors than they claim to [11:15] save just for a record here right now ice has an attention 258 illegals that are not wanted for murder [11:25] charges just in new york alone i'm speaking facts the mayor speaks with political tone his words are [11:39] dangerous and incite hostility it doesn't help i'll be i spoke to the mayor several times last night [11:51] he was wanting us to release this individual back onto the streets president trump actually got involved [12:00] and said that we would release him to new york's finest if nypd wants to take the charges and pursue [12:07] the charges we'll be happy to release him into the custody of nypd i shared that with the mayor the [12:13] mayor once again said we will not be detaining him wanted us to walk away and allow this dangerous [12:19] criminal back onto the streets once again the mayor was completely silent last week when his own [12:28] nypd officer was stabbed seven times by two criminals that they had released back into the streets [12:35] you didn't see the outrage that he spoke from a podium last night from but he wants to go after [12:40] ice for enforcing our nation's laws he used words like new yorkers by describing oscar as a new yorker [12:48] i'm sorry he's from the dominican republic he came to this country legally a few years ago and ever since [12:55] he's come in he's committed crime and crime after crime our records show they may only been in the [13:04] country for three years of course he came underneath the biden administration and he has three years of [13:09] extensive criminal activity you're going to call that a new yorker i think that's a far cry he said [13:16] that ice is rotten to the core really men and women at ice each day are enforcing the laws that [13:26] he refuses to enforce we arrest thousands weekly that are criminals going after the worst of the worst [13:37] and he turns a blind eye to it and wanting to stand up for his own nypd officers that by the way protect [13:43] him every single day he said he wants to abolish ice well mayor if you abolish ice who's going to take a [13:53] criminals off the streets of your own town who's going to take the murderers and thieves and the [13:57] gang bangers who's going to take them off the streets because you're not allowing nypd officers [14:03] to do it and they want to and i'll say again the president has made it very clear nypd are the finest [14:09] out there he loves them he loves our men and women in law enforcement we would love to work with new [14:15] yorkers we would love to work with the city we'd love to work with the state in fact last night i was [14:21] on the phone with the governor and the governor said that they would help us with over a hundred [14:28] different criminals that are in the state illegally if we would just give them notice and i said well [14:36] governor send me a list of who you're willing to help us with what crimes are you willing to help [14:40] us with if you'll send me that list i tell you what we would love your assistance in fact if they [14:47] would just honor the detainers that we put out you'd see less and less of ice if they'd work with us we [14:53] would love to but we're going to pursue every single day to get the worst of the worst if you enter this [14:57] country legally if you commit a crime and you're illegal here we are going to pursue you we're [15:02] going to hunt you down we will arrest you and we will send you back what we would welcome the [15:09] cooperation of the state of new york i asked the governor for her assistance after she said that [15:15] they would assist us already with over a hundred different criminal or crimes when i said help us my [15:24] words that came back to me were well right now we need to put a pause on enforcement no we're not [15:32] putting a pause on enforcement i'm sorry we're not in fact i'm not sorry our job is in enforcing nations [15:40] laws and go after the worst of the worst and our men and women do a dang good job at it every single [15:44] day and we will not stop doing our job when the mayor uses language like he used last night [15:53] yet he's silent when his own officer gets stabbed by the way those two individuals from the [15:59] dominican republic too just to make the connection he's silent on that but yet he throws a as i would [16:07] say in oklahoma a ring tail fit about this criminal it's hypocrisy it's not actually truthful it's all [16:17] about show and tell it's political theater and he knows it and hopefully the public knows it with that [16:25] i'll stop and i'll open up for questions go ahead thank you secretary alvarez with cnn can you [16:33] elaborate further on what exactly unfolded when this target enforcement operation happened marcus [16:39] charles discussed that there was law orders that were given and that his vehicle was locked in how [16:44] did that all unfold to the point where an agent at least one agent discharged seven rounds and was [16:50] the agent aware that there was a five-year-old in the vehicle at that time um the details we gave out [16:55] or the details as far as i can go the the as and all these shootings we allow the fbi and hsi to [17:00] do the investigation the investigation will come on will continue to move as more details come out [17:05] and we're ready to present the the the findings we'll we'll release them as far as the details all [17:10] we're able to give out is the details we have now what we were i will say this about the five-year-old [17:14] child um as a father of six i would never endanger my kids my job as a father is to protect my family [17:21] and i will die doing that every day um we weren't we wasn't aware the child was in the car i can tell [17:29] you that but do you know who was oscar oscar knew he had a child in his car oscar chose to accelerate [17:36] at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as he was as a pair appears to be going [17:42] towards officers uh and so the the public outcry should be also towards this criminal this thug this [17:50] gangbanger this possible murderer that outrage should be with him for endangering the five-year-old [17:58] the focus on what took place is it is absolutely absurd as i said before no one's throwing a fit the [18:06] news may have covered it i didn't see any coverage about the but very little sure didn't see any news [18:11] conferences on the nyp officer that was stabbed seven times by two dominican republic criminals that [18:16] were in the country legally but yet there's a lot of attention on this thug with extensive criminal [18:23] history that we were serving a a a lawful warrant on that had already evaded us once before rather [18:34] not many but that there are that they are ending with an agent discharging away i think i think you [18:40] i think your words by saying many is absolutely false as i said we arrest thousands thousands every [18:46] day the worst of the worst i say every day every week the worst of the worst you guys don't cover all [18:53] those you cover just the ones and this guy can anybody deny that he was a criminal can anybody say [18:59] he wasn't the worst the worst we we we were anticipating that he may try to flee because he [19:05] did one time already in september we try to serve him we took every precaution we could possibly take [19:10] but we cannot completely predict someone's behavior he had a fight or flight mentality and he chooses to [19:19] to flee and fight that's not a smart decision to make we had gave lawful orders as marcus had said [19:28] as we approached the car that was information that we were able to give he chose not to listen yes so [19:35] here first thank you mr secretary luke bar the abc news were the officers wearing body worn cameras and [19:41] will you and will you release the footage uh as as the investigation moves forward um we as i said we'll [19:48] release the information but yes there was body cameras and they were on yes and then i'll go to you [19:52] next secretary miles miller at bloomberg news um i wonder you know you see the videos from what [19:58] happened um a number of the agents are in plain clothes uh and the vehicles are unmarked vehicles [20:06] by looking at that was it clear do you do you believe it was clear to the subject that he was being [20:12] stopped by ice and you know you talk about the nature of this investigation and it's starting in [20:17] september no no it started way before that sure lead once before in september um you talk about [20:24] the nature of surveillance that if if if agents are you know doing this work to to find this individual [20:31] how would they not know that a child is in the car well um i can't speak to that that's investigation [20:37] but i i can say when you're doing under cover investigation you're definitely not in a marked car [20:42] and uniformed police uh state police offers that operates the same way nypd offers it operates the [20:48] same way every federal agency every agency out there be it local state or county operates with [20:54] undercover officers that's what we do and we do it the best um and so but i think marco starles said [21:00] it very clear we identified ourselves and gave lawful orders as we approached the vehicle so there was [21:06] no question he would have known who was approaching not to mention he knew he was wanted [21:11] he had fled once he knew he was wanted it wasn't like it was unexpected to him uh when you flee [21:19] especially for a criminal like him he knows that officers aren't going to give up on him that's [21:25] that's for sure so this wasn't a surprise i i i know he knew his day was coming yes ma'am thank [21:31] you so much uh rebecca santana from the associated press can you clarify any for details on the shooting [21:37] specifically how many officers opened fire was it once again that investigation will still be coming i [21:42] can't give all those details we're still investing or it's the investigation is going on led by fbi [21:47] and hsi got it okay yes thank you julia ainsley with nbc news i wanted to ask you about another [21:54] incident that happened near new york yesterday in new jersey there's a video of a family where a father [21:59] who as i understand it from your dhs spokespeople had traffic infractions he is targeted the family [22:05] is screaming trying to keep the father from going the mother or a female passenger in the video appears [22:11] to be the mother is also taken into custody we understand not because she was the target but [22:16] because she was interfering with the arrest there are two screaming children on the sidewalk time and [22:22] time again you'll hear some people say these arrests are another form of family separation and then we [22:27] also hear from dhs these families have a choice to deport together but when you watch these videos [22:32] it's clear there's not a conversation happening about whether or not these parents are taking their [22:37] children i wonder if you could speak to that video if you've seen it and more broadly to what's [22:42] happening when we see parents who are arrested by children are protesting them are there plans for [22:47] where these children are going and are parents really given the choice in that moment about whether [22:51] or not they could go into family detention or not i i i i'm not familiar with the case i've been [22:56] dealing with this one but i think you said he was wanted for trafficking traffic infractions traffic [23:01] infractions okay i i haven't seen the case and so it's hard for me to speak on this but i will say [23:06] when we are making an arrest if there's someone that's interfering then we end the arrest in a [23:17] federal operation then we will detain that individual if they're interfering with it if the individual [23:22] that's in the vehicle maybe in this case was also may not have been a target but was also in the country [23:27] legally um and we it's called it's called a um uh collateral criminal that it may not be the target [23:34] but the person's still in the country legally we're not going to just release the individual [23:38] we will hold the individual we'll give them an option to allow the kids to go with them once the [23:43] scene is secured we didn't see the whole video i haven't seen the video at all but you probably [23:46] didn't see the whole video once the scene is secure once we settle everything down we figure out [23:50] who is who then we'll start having communications with the individual when it's when we're in the [23:55] middle of the operation it's very chaotic um you got to assume every time we're approaching a car [24:01] that there could be criminal behavior there's a fight or flight mentality we see it over and over [24:05] again so once it is secure once everything is calm then we'll start having the conversation who are [24:10] these kids are they really with the individual keep in mind the biden administration released 450 000 [24:15] kids into this country that we're still looking for we have found over 150 and there's a large portion [24:21] of them that were trafficked so just because they say they're their kids we want to make sure it [24:25] is their kids once we can identify them we will give them an option to be held together as a [24:30] family unit we have family housing i was just at one just recently in alexandria louisiana a very [24:37] nice family housing where we keep units together if they choose not to stay in the family then we'll [24:42] make sure that there is a secure place for the children to go to we're not releasing them just anybody [24:47] we'll either put them into state custody or to a known relative that is a secured area that we can [24:53] follow up and not just release them to someone we don't know because what we don't want to happen [24:57] is these children to be trafficked so we are very cautious the underneath president trump's leadership [25:03] we have a very strong base on making sure that we keep children safe unlike the bide administration [25:11] can i ask a quick follow-up public data on arrest and detention has not been released since july 20th [25:16] when can we see that data uh what did what information are you talking about ice detention [25:21] data well i have said this multiple times what a statute will release mr secretary well any time [25:35] that a weapon is discharged into shooting typically we do put uh people on administrative leave while the [25:40] investigation is going and that they will be on administrative leave until the investigation is [25:44] completed um have they been interviewed i i don't i don't know this was unfolding last night [25:50] um as i said uh there was a lot of moving parts i spoke multiple times to the president multiple [25:56] times to the governor multiple times to the mayor and i'm just going to circle back to this it is [26:01] shameful that we're giving this particular case so much attention when this was a thug absolute worst [26:09] the worst and this attention wasn't given even close when we had an nypd officer that was stabbed seven [26:15] times by also two thugs that should have never been back on the streets because those individuals we had [26:20] detainers on at least one of them we had detainers on and they both had extensive backgrounds i i just [26:25] i just want everything to be treated the same and it should be treated the same and unfortunately we're [26:29] giving so much attention to this thug that was that was a true threat to society to the point that we had [26:35] to we had to put him to a more secured facility outside of new york so he's not even in the state [26:41] of new york anymore because we wanted to make sure he was in a highly secured facility because of the threat [26:46] that he has in his history of evading police where is he that i won't release as you ramp up the pace [26:53] sorry as you ramp up the pace of deportations um why you say ramp up the face we do our job every day [26:59] that's it that's a narrative i'm going to push back on this real quick that's a narrative that you guys [27:02] have said that we're ramping up up to the midterm elections we're not ramping up anything we're doing [27:06] our job every day that's all we do this whole narrative that says we're ramping up where'd that come [27:12] from there was an email that you guys read there wasn't was there something because just i think [27:18] it was last week that you guys were accusing of saying that we're dialing down enforcements in [27:22] certain areas i'm going no we're not we're consistently doing our job every day we pursue the worst the [27:28] worst regardless if it's sunday regardless if it's monday regardless if it's christmas regardless [27:34] it's thanksgiving regardless it's on a saturday we are pursuing the worst the worst every day there is [27:40] no ramp up there is no draw down we're doing our job um as as uh as deportations continue um are you [27:48] going to continue using the planes that were purchased and during the prior uh dhs administration [27:55] and are you no idea what that has to do with the worst of the worst well well i'd imagine you'd be [28:00] deporting what all you're doing here is you're trying to take this someplace else because you know that [28:05] we arrested the worst of the worst last night and you're trying to bring up something else that's [28:09] controversial this is what i hate about fake news you guys you guys when we're doing a press [28:14] conference on something you guys want to completely steer away when you realize that this isn't someone [28:18] that you should be defending and you bring up something as ridiculous as that i'm just i'm just [28:23] saying i'm not even going to entertain your question because that's not what we're here for that's not [28:26] we're here for if you want to ask something that's detained to what we're having this press [28:29] conference for i'll be happy to do that okay i'll take this last question because that wasn't even a [28:34] question yes can you confirm the existence of an operation a surge operation in california there is [28:39] no surge i just i keep saying this we're doing the worst we're going after the worst of the worst we're [28:44] serving warrants and individuals that are on final orders uh that's what we're doing no specific surge [28:48] in california no there's no specific surge we're doing our job every day anything in response i mean i'm [28:53] sure you're doing our job every day the governor and from i know they accuse us of being doing a job site [29:00] raids and farm raids and there's some videos out on tick tock and you look at tick tock you go well [29:05] there's people leaving the farm but there's no ice agents around we're serving warrants and final [29:11] orders uh and and this whole surge we may go to certain areas when we have a high level of threat [29:17] like we did in new york 30 days ago when we do a surge and we're trying to arrest the worst of the [29:22] worst which no one knew what we're that we're even there we announced it afterwards operation rotten apple [29:27] you guys remember that one um but we're not we're not doing it to do um necessarily uh [29:34] job site enforcements we're doing it to get the worst of the worst off the streets because we've [29:37] seen this criminal activity continue to grow in sanctuary cities and sanctuary states the problem [29:42] with that is is it doesn't stay the criminal activity doesn't stay in the sanctuary cities or [29:46] the sanctuary states it doesn't stay there it bleeds over to other neighborhoods it bleeds over to other [29:51] states it bleeds over to other areas that they don't want this criminal activity that elected officials [29:56] in those areas don't want this kind of activity they're not they're not sanctuary politicians but [30:00] sanctuary politicians create a safe haven for this to take place and then it bleeds over when we see [30:05] that start happening then we'll go in and do an enforcement to get the worst of the worst off the [30:09] streets uh i believe it was i know it was president trump that brought this statistic out and i think [30:14] it was a great statistic he says two percent of the population are the ones that make the severity uh [30:20] or the the most uh um two percent of the population uh um are the are the the the creators of of over [30:29] ninety percent of the crime i believe that's what he said um but his point my point is is that two [30:34] percent of the population can absolutely destroy a city because of the criminal activity and that was [30:40] what the president was trying to make the point he was trying to make and that and i agree so we're we [30:44] always go after those individuals so with that i just want to leave it with this the men and women at dhs [30:50] all 22 of our components our job every single day is protect the homeland that's our job and and i [30:57] stand in front of you as a secretary of department homeland and i feel so honored to have this position [31:02] there is nothing that should be controversial about protecting our homeland we do our job but we do it [31:07] well it's because these politicians these career sanctuary city politicians that want to make it [31:14] controversial what is controversial about protecting our border what is controversial about enforcing immigration [31:21] policy that by the way these career politicians especially in congress they're the ones that make [31:25] the law we simply enforce them if they want to change it they have the ability to change it we [31:30] enforce it but yet somehow it's our fault what is what is so bad about department homeland security [31:36] because it was stood up to protect us from an event that happened 25 years ago on september 11th [31:44] is our memory that short is it really that short when i say it's the greatest job i've had it's the [31:52] greatest job i have because i get to protect my backyard and every man and woman that works inside [31:57] dhs we protect our backyard as tough as we protect your backyard regardless of the blue state regardless [32:03] of the red state regardless of sanctuary city regardless it's not a sanctuary city we look at it [32:07] the same it's the homeland we do a dang good job doing it and i'm so tired of it all sudden being [32:14] controversial because it's a political talking point we're keeping men and women in this country safe [32:21] we're protecting them from the criminals that are that were that have flooded flooded our country [32:26] in her four years of the biden administration i'll never apologize about our men and women doing [32:31] their job i'm very proud of them and i thank the president for giving me this opportunity thank you