Venezuelan man shot by ICE in Austin awaits surgery decision

DHS disputes details, says ICE will stay in Austin during investigation

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, has spent the past five days in federal immigration detention with a bullet lodged in his back, after ICE rapidly removed him from an Austin hospital where he had been taken on Sunday after the shooting, according to The Guardian’s reporting. He was transported to a detention center roughly 140 miles west of San Antonio. A timeline for any surgery remains unknown, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said Friday.

Casar, a Texas Democrat, told reporters he found Garcés Pérez in a wheelchair with a sling on his left arm. Casar said Garcés Pérez only recently had been given stronger painkillers. The congressman said Garcés Pérez had been told by a medical specialist that he requires surgery to remove the bullet stuck between his shoulder blades. “Surgery, of course, we all know, has its benefits and risks. But if Wilber and his wife decide that he needs to go through a surgery, then ICE needs to expedite his care,” Casar said. “I am making it very clear to every part of the federal government that ICE needs to take the medical care of Wilber Garcés Pérez extremely seriously.”

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, responded to Casar’s comments on X, asserting the agency provides all its detainees comprehensive medical care that is “the best healthcare [many] have received their entire lives.” DHS also disputed Garcés Pérez’s earlier claim that he slept on the floor on his first night of detention. DHS did not respond to questions from The Guardian about Garcés Pérez’s medical treatment or the investigation into the shooting.

Accounts of what led up to the shooting differ. Garcés Pérez, who was making a DoorDash delivery when he was shot, has said he did not initially realize ICE was trying to stop him and that he drove a short distance to move his car to a safer spot before an ICE vehicle struck him. Bystander video and footage later released by Austin police appear to show that Garcés Pérez stopped down the block about 10 minutes before the shooting, in a lane of moving traffic, blocked on either side by black SUVs, conversing with two federal officers standing outside his car. After the conversation, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said a pursuit “going through side neighborhoods” followed.

Bystander video shows an ICE SUV crashing into Garcés Pérez before a federal officer exited the vehicle and shot him. Austin police arrived shortly after and found Garcés Pérez in his car clutching his chest as federal personnel looked on and said they had called an ambulance. Two Austin officers took a medical kit from their vehicle and rendered first aid, cutting off his shirt to reveal the bullet wound.

Asked about the discrepancies between her client’s account and the police video, Lincoln-Goldfinch told The Guardian: “Asking my client who is gravely injured, who is on communication lockdown, in a jail cell, to explain what happened is unfair.” She declined to say whether she regretted putting her client in front of the media at a press conference she held Monday during which he briefly reached her by phone. Lincoln-Goldfinch said she has been unable to reach him since and that ICE has not provided her with its footage of the incident. Lincoln-Goldfinch also said she was concerned about transparency because of reports that the officer who shot Garcés Pérez was not wearing a body camera at the time.

DHS is leading the investigation into the shooting, alongside the FBI. The local district attorney and Austin police have launched their own inquiries.

ICE has drawn criticism from some city leaders in Austin, including Mayor Kirk Watson. Democratic politicians and migrant rights organizations have separately stepped up calls since the shooting for ICE to stop conducting traffic stops and random questioning of immigrants. “ICE will not be slowing down nor leaving Austin,” DHS said in a statement.

Middle-school and high-school students at schools across the Austin area, including at predominantly Hispanic schools, walked out throughout the week, waving signs and flags from Latin American countries.

A federal judge has ordered Garcés Pérez to be present at a court hearing next week, where the judge is expected to begin considering a habeas corpus petition seeking his release. The local attorney general has filed a letter asking that Garcés Pérez be kept in the United States during the investigation because of his importance as a witness in his own shooting. Garcés Pérez is also the subject of a separate court order to remove him from the U.S., and his legal team has applied for a visa on the claim that he is the victim of a violent crime committed by ICE.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said she lost contact with her client for more than two days after he reached her by phone during the press conference she held Monday. He described the pain from his injuries and offered his account of events, she said, and has been held in isolation since.