New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman criticized singer Harry Styles this week after Styles paid tribute during a Madison Square Garden show to a migrant who was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week.
“I think Harry Styles should put that guy on his tour bus and tour around the country with this guy, who is a convicted criminal,” Blakeman said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” “He is alleged to have gang activity. He’s alleged to be involved in drug-dealing poison to our children.”
Styles, who is in the middle of a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden, paused during his show to honor Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old migrant from the Dominican Republic who was shot by ICE on Thursday. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the back seat of the car at the time.
“I just want us to take a moment to think about Oscar Belgal tonight, and I want us to just think and remember to just look after each other,” Styles told the crowd.
Blakeman called the gesture “elitist” and “out-of-touch.”
“It’s elitist, it’s out-of-touch and quite frankly, it’s wrong,” Blakeman told Fox News. “We have to get these illegal migrants with criminal records out of our communities.”
Belgal was shot after allegedly refusing to comply with officers conducting a targeted arrest operation, according to authorities. Senior ICE official Marcos Charles defended the officers’ actions during a news conference on Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security says Belgal has previous arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession, and federal officials have alleged he has ties to the Trinitarios street gang.
“This is who [Styles] wants in our communities? This is who he sticks up for, rather than federal agents who just want to do their job?” Blakeman said.
Blakeman, who is campaigning in the final stretch of the New York governor’s race, argued that celebrities like Styles don’t face the consequences of the immigration policies they appear to support.
“Harry Styles and elitists like him, they know that these criminals aren’t going to move into their neighborhoods,” Blakeman said. “They’re going to move into neighborhoods with Hispanic and Latino populations, Asian-American populations, African-American and Caribbean populations, and hurt those communities and try and get those kids into their drug gangs.”
A DHS spokesperson also took aim at the singer in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying: “Imagine taking law enforcement advice from a man who dresses in women’s clothes while hiding behind armed private security.”
Fox News Digital said it reached out to Styles for comment.
Blakeman’s remarks come as other New York leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have continued to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Mamdani has called ICE “rotten to its core,” and according to DHS, more than 16,000 ICE detainers have gone unhonored by New York since January 2025. Blakeman also criticized Hochul, calling her “out-of-touch” and accusing her of endangering New Yorkers through her immigration stance.
Belgal is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, reportedly with a bullet still lodged in his neck. His legal team has said he is enduring “deplorable conditions” at the facility.
