Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin adamantly defended federal immigration officers involved in the shooting of Oscar Belgal, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, in New York on Thursday.

Mullin told reporters at a Friday morning press conference at the DHS headquarters in Washington that the man U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers attempted to arrest on Thursday had an extensive criminal history and had a 5-year-old child in his vehicle when federal police approached him and he attempted to escape.