Democratic House candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier appeared on controversial streamer Hasan Piker’s show over the weekend to discuss the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal late last week, an incident that sparked anger and fierce protests in New York City.
Chevalier, who was pushed to the ground amid the chaos of the protests, has called for NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to step down.
“What is the rap sheet for this person that Jessica Tisch is alleging is this criminal, and that the ICE apprehension was valid from that perspective?” Piker asked.
“You know, I was just so angry as I was listening to it. I have gone back to her remarks to make sure that I was correct in our statement about it. But to me, it doesn’t even matter, right? It doesn’t even matter,” Chevalier said of Belgal’s criminal record and illegal status in the country.
Chevalier went on to criticize Tisch’s response to the shooting.
“Police Commissioner Tisch came out, and I understand that it is her role to provide more information, and that is why she comes to these press conferences. But rather than condemn ICE, rather than condemn the shooting or the events that had just taken place, she started to villainize Oscar, right?” she said.
The candidate then laid out her demands.
“Both the biggest, but also the most straightforward, is that we need to abolish ICE. There is no reason for this institution to exist,” Chevalier said, adding that Congress must pass the Melt ICE Act and strip “all of the funds from this institution.”
She also argued that officials who don’t uphold sanctuary policies should resign.
“If there’s somebody as high-level as the police commissioner who is not following that, I think it is on them to recognize that they are not reflecting the values and the policies that New Yorkers want to see in the city, right? And it’s on them to reflect on that and step down,” she said. “He needs to be released. He is currently in MDC in Brooklyn.”
Piker later dismissed the notion that ICE was taking a criminal off the streets as “totally ridiculous,” citing The New York Times in saying Belgal’s crimes were nonviolent drug offenses and robbery.
“Put yourself in Oscar’s shoes. You have your child in the backseat. You’re picking him up from school, and all of a sudden you see masked men coming towards your car, banging on it, pulling out guns. You’re running. I’m sorry, but you were protecting your child,” Chevalier said.
Asked by Piker for parting words, Chevalier replied, “Hi, chat, and f*ck ICE and abolish it.”
The day after Chevalier said Belgal’s past crimes don’t matter, the New York Post reported that he had terrorized his neighbors, including pulling a machete on one of them during an argument.
In its Sunday cover story, the Post reported that a former neighbor at the Washington Heights apartment building where Belgal lived until about a year ago described him as wreaking havoc there, and said he was relieved the 28-year-old Dominican Republic native had been taken off the streets. Authorities said Belgal has ties to the Trinitarios street gang.
Belgal’s criminal record includes a 2023 conviction for armed robbery and a 2025 arrest for allegedly selling deadly substances, including heroin and fentanyl.
Chevalier, who is backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, won her party’s primary and is all but certain to win election to the House in November, representing the district where Belgal lived.
