Make New York Post a Preferred Source New York City congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier at an anti-ICE protest near the scene of where federal agents shot an illegal migrant in the Bronx on Oct. 8, 2026. OLGA FEDOROVA/EPA/Shutterstock New York radical congressional wannabe Darializa Avila Chevalier just said the quiet part out loud: It doesn’t “matter” to her that illegal immigrant and alleged gangbanger Oscar Belgal has a violent criminal record.
She wants him free to roam the streets and terrorize neighbors all the same.
Well, nuts to that: Belgal’s violent criminal record “matters” to normal New Yorkers. Enormously.
They want thugs like him gone, and they’re beyond grateful ICE agents are risking their lives to boot these menaces from US soil — and keep Americans safe.
Alas, Chevalier is not alone. Indeed, she’s giving voice to exactly the kind of scary views of many on the far-left, from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani on down — even if they don’t put it so honestly.
Federal officers shot Belgal last week after he weaponized his car and drove it at them as they attempted to arrest him not just for being here illegally, but also in connection with past crimes.
Indeed, he’s had several run-ins with cops, was convicted of armed robbery and allegedly sold fentanyl, cocaine and heroin.
He’s also believed linked to the Trinitarios street gang, and on Sunday The Post reported that his Bronx neighbors say he’s terrorized them, including with a machete.
“Immigration is just doing its job,” one resident told The Post. “They go after those who have committed crimes.”
Yet Hochul stood up for the law-breakers: “I expressed outrage” that Belgal was shot and detained, she huffed, and never mind his record, his attack on federal agents or his neighbors’ reports.
She said she urged President Donald Trump “to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York.”
Mamdani, too, raced to defend Belgal — who snuck into the country during the Biden open-border era — portraying him as his fellow “New Yorker.”
How could anyone who thinks Belgal’s violent record “doesn’t matter” or that he should be treated as a full-fledged, law-abiding “New Yorker” hold public office?
Why are Chevalier, Hochul, Mamdani & Co. calling for criminals to be free, just because they’re immigrants (and illegal immigrants, at that)?
The idea of granting violent thugs the privilege of living in the greatest city of the world, in the greatest country in the world, with free rein to wreak havoc on US citizens is suicidal lunacy.
Most New Yorkers understand that; they know foreigners have no automatic right to live here, and that the lucky ones who do are enjoying a privilege granted to them by a generous nation.
And if Hochul, Mamdani, Chevalier and their ilk insist on protecting non-citizen thugs over law-abiding New Yorkers, they have no business holding elected office.
