Elected officials and faith leaders from the Bronx have called on Target to prevent federal agents from using its locations as operational bases, a demand that follows the October 8 shooting of Oscar Belgal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the Marble Hill neighbourhood.
On October 5, a coalition of elected representatives from the Bronx and Manhattan addressed a formal letter to Kingsbridge Associates — the co-owner of the Marble Hill Target — to inquire about the developer's ties to ICE and to call on the company to bar federal immigration enforcement activity from taking place in its parking lot. Concerns from residents about ICE operations at the site had been building over several months by the time the letter was sent.
Within days of the correspondence being dispatched, Belgal — identified as a 28-year-old Dominican Republic national — was struck by gunfire during a law enforcement operation that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described as deliberately targeted. Homeland Security officials alleged that Belgal had ties to the Trinitarios gang, though that assertion was not confirmed by outside reporting or independent review.
Kingsbridge Associates, in a letter delivered two days after the shooting, told Councilmember Pierina Sanchez's office that the company had no knowledge of ICE conducting operations on its property and that no working relationship with the agency existed. In a statement to a prominent broadcast outlet, Target conveyed that no formal arrangement with ICE was in place and left subsequent questions unanswered.
New York City's sanctuary framework limits what city agencies and the NYPD can do in support of federal immigration enforcement under certain conditions, yet those rules carry no general authority to bar federal agents from entering private property. State Senator Rivera put forward a formal request to both Target and Kingsbridge Associates that each company adopt an explicit policy prohibiting ICE from operating in the parking lot — a step he contended would provide legal standing to treat any agents present without authorisation as trespassers.
Gathered at a rally on October 9, a group of elected officials called on Target to acknowledge its role regarding activity on the company's property and to make a public pledge barring ICE from operating there. Rivera indicated that months of outreach by elected officials to both Target and Kingsbridge Associates — prompted by accounts of agents using the properties as a staging area — had gone unanswered.
A written demand from New York City Comptroller Mark Levine — whose portfolio includes oversight of the city's pension systems — called for a third-party evaluator to review how the company handled the matter. The city's pension funds carry investments in Target, and Levine stated that pressure on the corporation to withdraw its support for what he described as harmful federal agency conduct toward the community would continue.
Kingsbridge Associates operates under the Washington Square Partners umbrella, a real estate group whose completed projects around the city include DeKalb Market Hall and City Point. Sanchez noted that the company has also received tax abatements and credits from the city, among them benefits tied to the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program.
Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, responding to a question about whether the city might restrict or place conditions on contracts with developers that work alongside ICE, indicated that no options had been ruled out and that the matter was one she intended to raise with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Racial Equity Commission chair and executive director Linda Tijani drew attention to a morality provision embedded in city contracts — the same clause that former Mayor de Blasio had invoked to terminate the city's agreements with the Trump Organization. Tijani contended that the city bore a responsibility to align its pension investments with racial equity principles, calling for the removal of Target and any other corporation that had stepped back from diversity commitments, as well as certain real estate firms, and noted that municipal budget law itself mandated those equity considerations, including protections for immigrant communities.
Tijani stated that neither the city's budget allocations nor its pension funds should direct any money toward businesses that work alongside, accommodate, or otherwise facilitate immigration enforcement operations, or that continue to act in accordance with what she described as unlawful directives from the Trump administration.
On the evening of October 9, gatherings formed across streets in the area following the shooting of Belgal, prompting a deployment of officers from the NYPD's Strategic Response Group, who encountered those assembled during the unrest. Tisch stated that the NYPD played no part in the federal operation, while the department separately drew questions over its handling of the protests.
Calls for Mamdani's administration and fellow elected officials to take a harder line on immigration enforcement activity within the city compounded the scrutiny he was already facing over the police response. Jose Alfaro, speaking on behalf of RESO — Resist and Solidarity — called on Mamdani and city officials to take an unambiguous public stance against ICE and to bar the NYPD from participating in federal immigration enforcement, adding that the city's overall position on the matter needed to be considerably stronger.
Alfaro stated that residents of New York City would need to take collective action to prevent ICE from operating there, pointing to the mobilisation seen in Minneapolis as a model, and adding that the responsibility extended beyond elected officials alone. He called for organising a community effort capable of preventing immigration enforcement agents from operating within the city.
