The two-page order, issued Friday by U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken acting as the Southern District of New York's Part I judge, says nothing about whether the Thursday shooting was justified, whether Bergal's detention is lawful, or whether he has any right to stay in the country. It says something much narrower: "an immediate order is necessary to preserve the Court's jurisdiction" while his habeas petition waits for assignment to a judge.
On that basis alone, Oetken ruled that Bergal "shall not be removed from the United States absent further order of this Court," and barred ICE from moving him outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey. The order stays in effect until it is vacated or modified. That is the entire stated reason — the court's own jurisdiction, not the merits of the case.
The Trump administration's position is the direct opposite of that procedural freeze. At Friday's press conference, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officers did not know the 5-year-old was in the car when they opened fire, and laid the blame on Bergal for putting the child in harm's way. "We wasn't aware the child was in the car," Mullin said, arguing it was Bergal who endangered the boy. Reuters reported Mullin accusing Bergal of endangering both officers and the child by using his car as a weapon.
Mullin went further, saying the public outrage belongs on Bergal himself: "the public outcry should be also toward this criminal, this thug, this gang-banger, this possible murderer." And he confirmed he had offered to hand the suspect over to local authorities: "President Trump actually got involved and said that we would release him to New York's finest," Mullin said. "If NYPD wants to take the charges and pursue the charges, we'll be happy to release him into the custody of NYPD. I shared that with the Mayor. The Mayor once again said, 'we will not be detaining him,' wanted us to walk away and allow this dangerous criminal back onto the streets." The offer is the same one ProfiloPolitics reported Thursday, now on the record from the DHS secretary himself.
Mullin also said removal proceedings against Bergal were already underway and that he had been moved to a detention facility outside New York because of his criminal history and flight risk. Senior ICE official Marcos Charles said Friday that Bergal refused to exit his car, accelerated, struck two ICE vehicles, and "weaponized his vehicle by driving it toward other officers," who then opened fire. Bergal was struck in the neck by a bullet or fragment; Reuters reported he is being held at a facility outside New York state.
The man covered by Oetken's order is a Dominican national in the United States illegally. ICE says it was conducting a targeted arrest Thursday in the Bronx's Marble Hill neighborhood when Bergal refused orders, accelerated, and rammed government vehicles with his 5-year-old in the back seat — agents say they did not know the child was there. An officer fired seven rounds and struck him in the neck. He has a prior grand larceny conviction from a 2023 robbery case that drew five years' probation in April 2025, plus a pending 2025 charge for criminal sale of a controlled substance, according to NYPD officials at Thursday's briefing. DHS alleges ties to the Trinitarios and possible knowledge of the shooting of a CBP officer, while the NYPD says he is not listed as a Trinitarios member in its database. Court filings spell the name Bergal; police have used Belgal.
None of that appears in Oetken's order. The child in the car does not appear. The vehicle used as a weapon does not appear. The conviction does not appear. The administration says he is a flight risk with a record who already tried to drive through an arrest, which is why they moved him and started removal. The judge's stated concern was keeping the case inside his courthouse long enough for another judge to look at it. The case has since been assigned to Judge John P. Cronan, with a hearing set for Friday afternoon.
A procedural stay dressed up as jurisdiction preservation is still a court order stopping removal of a man the administration says just drove a car at federal agents with a child in the back seat. If the only justification a federal judge will put on paper is "preserve the Court's jurisdiction," while DHS is already moving to deport him, Congress should start treating that as grounds for impeachment, not deference.