Darializa Avila Chevalier, a self styled socialist heavily favored to win New York’s 13th Congressional District in November, argued that an illegal alien with documented gang associations and an extensive criminal record should remain in the United States.

Chevalier discussed the case during an interview with CNN host Erin Burnett after a Friday shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood. Agents were conducting a targeted operation involving Dominican national Oscar Belgal.

Federal officials said agents blocked Belgal’s vehicle and ordered him to get out. He allegedly refused, accelerated, struck two ICE vehicles, and appeared to drive toward officers before they fired roughly seven rounds while defending themselves.

Belgal suffered a superficial wound during the confrontation. Authorities took him into custody after he received treatment at a hospital.

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Belgal entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location. His criminal record includes a grand larceny conviction in the fourth degree involving property taken from another person.

Belgal pleaded guilty to a reduced charge connected to a December 2023 arrest and received five years of probation in April 2025. The criminal complaint alleged that he pointed a gun at two people inside a vehicle, demanded their jewelry and cash, and threatened to shoot them.

He also previously faced arrests involving robbery in the first degree while possessing a weapon, assault, possession of stolen property, and the criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Pending drug charges from 2025 concern alleged sales of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover officer. Belgal received supervised release in that case.

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Federal authorities say Belgal has associations with the Trinitarios gang, which was also linked to the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer. Belgal was a target of a Homeland Security Investigations probe connected to that shooting and had previously fled an arrest attempt in September.

The New York Police Department arrested Belgal on December 7, 2023. He was released only days later because of New York’s sanctuary policies.

Chevalier joined far left activists at the scene in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s shooting and attempted to position herself between protesters and local police. Burnett later confronted her about Belgal’s record, gang associations, and connection to the investigation involving the Customs and Border Protection officer.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is on the front lines and got knocked down as NYPD and protestors shoved and fought over police barricades https://t.co/cBXMKuV89e

— Timmy Facciola (@TimmyFacciola_) October 9, 2026

Rather than endorse deportation, Chevalier framed his potential removal as an additional punishment following the criminal court process. She told Burnett, “If… we have a criminal justice system in this country, and it does not make sense to me that we would subject somebody to the double jeopardy of being tried by our criminal courts and then, again, subjected to the cruelty of what we just saw yesterday, by another law enforcement agency like ICE. The additional punishment being here, of course, deportation and permanent separation from your family,”

Burnett also questioned Chevalier about the New York Police Department’s investigations of Belgal and her demands that Commissioner Jessica Tisch resign. Chevalier claimed she was reflecting what people in her district wanted from their Democratic nominee for Congress.

“I’m simply echoing what the folks in my district want to see and have called for. That is my role, right?” Chevalier said.

Chevalier also attacked Tisch for declining to condemn ICE and accused the commissioner of failing to address what Chevalier viewed as a violation of sanctuary policy. “To me, I was honestly disgusted to hear the way that the Commissioner refused to address and condemn ICE for its actions, refused to address, directly, the fact that, sanctuary policy was being violated, if not in — if — in spirit, if not in letter, right?” she said.

Following an ICE-involved shooting in NYC, Democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier was shoved to the ground by police at a Bronx protest. She is now doubling down on calls to abolish ICE and for NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to resign. https://t.co/9Rtx2OrzKC

— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) October 10, 2026

Chevalier said Tisch could have used the moment to condemn the operation and remind residents that New York City is a sanctuary city. Instead, Chevalier accused the commissioner of choosing to demonize their neighbors.

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