“It doesn’t even matter, right? It doesn’t even matter.”
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America-backed nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, said that on Hasan Piker’s Twitch stream on Saturday. Piker had asked whether the lengthy criminal record of a man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer made the arrest valid. Her answer was that the record doesn’t matter. Piker added that even a murder record wouldn’t justify the shooting.
That answer is the DSA program in one sentence. If a record can never matter, no record can trigger removal, and sanctuary for criminals stops being a side effect and becomes the policy. I hold a criminal justice degree from Northeastern, spent eight years in private security and protection work, and I’m the father of three sons. Protection work taught me that the first job is deciding who poses the threat. A policy that refuses to acknowledge the record fails that job.
The party line says as much. DSA’s published program calls to “End ICE detention and deportations” and to “grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status.” I read that plank slowly and found no exceptions. Nothing for child rape, nothing for weapons charges, nothing for the gang members. In Casablanca, Captain Renault at least goes through the motions of ordering his men to “round up the usual suspects.” DSA’s roundup list is empty.
Let’s start with the facts first, with the caution a courtroom would demand. On October 8, federal officers moved to arrest Oscar Belgal, 28, a Dominican national whom the Department of Homeland Security says is in the country illegally and who, by DHS’s account, already carried an ICE detainer. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at least one officer fired seven rounds. His 5-year-old son was in the car and was not hurt. NYPD camera footage, according to ABC News, shows Belgal backing out and driving away after an officer broke his window. It does not show the ramming DHS alleges, and it missed the shooting itself. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating, and Gov. Kathy Hochul wants the body camera footage released.
Tisch said Belgal had two prior arrests, including robbery and selling a controlled substance. DHS cites a grand larceny conviction and arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession, and alleges ties to the Trinitarios gang. Belgal has pleaded not guilty to pending charges, and no independent evidence of gang ties has been made public. Those are allegations. Piker waved them off as “non-violent drug offenses and robbery,” yet robbery means taking property by force or the threat of it, which is why the FBI counts it among the violent crimes. Try explaining the nonviolent part to the victim.
Everywhere else in the justice system, the record matters. Federal bail law tells judges to weigh a defendant’s “criminal history” and the danger their release poses to the community. I’ve been an expert witness in state and federal courts since 2015, and courtrooms run on track records because past conduct is some of the best evidence anyone has of future conduct. Chevalier wants one exception: the system that decides who stays in the country.
Now the objection I’d raise against myself. A rap sheet doesn’t license deadly force. Under Graham v. Connor, the Supreme Court judges force by what a reasonable officer faced at that moment, “rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” That protects officers from armchair prosecutors and requires them to answer for that instant. Belgal’s lawyers say agents arrested him without a warrant, and a federal judge has temporarily barred his deportation or transfer while weighing their petition. If the footage undercuts DHS, conservatives who prize accountability should say so. Still, the validity of an arrest and the reasonableness of a shot are separate questions, and Chevalier’s answer to the first is the problem.
New York already runs a sanctuary status. City law lets the NYPD honor federal detainers only with a judicial warrant, and only for people convicted of certain serious or violent crimes. A person charged but not yet convicted falls outside it. House Judiciary Republicans say the NYPD honored zero detainers from July 2021 through September 2024, a partisan tally I can’t independently confirm. DHS says the NYPD arrested Belgal in December 2023 and the city let him go. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s answer is that ICE “must be abolished.” He also says he spent about two hours on the phone with President Trump and the Homeland Security secretary trying to win Belgal’s release. A mayor who works the phones that long for one criminal has made a choice about how much the record matters.
Marcus Aurelius wrote that “that which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.” A sanctuary that shields someone with a violent record from removal sacrifices the swarm, including the law-abiding immigrants who share those blocks and have the most to lose.
Conservatives have workable fixes, and none involve shooting anybody. Ask every candidate in plain English whether a noncitizen with a violent record should be removed, yes or no, because “doesn’t matter” isn’t an answer. Have cities honor detainers for anyone charged with a violent offense and notify ICE before release. Let Congress set a national floor for jail notification so enforcement doesn’t depend on which county someone lands in. And review every ICE shooting independently, with the footage released. Sunlight is still the best disinfectant, and skeptics of enforcement deserve it as much as supporters do.
Chevalier says the record doesn’t matter. I’d invite her to say that to the crime victims in her own district. A record exists because someone got robbed, threatened or hurt, and telling them it doesn’t even matter tells the next victim exactly where they rank. If voters in New York’s 13th District elect her, they can only blame themselves if they are victimized.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.