Eleven days after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez finally had surgery to remove the bullet in his upper back last Thursday, Oct. 1, according to one of his attorneys, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
Garces Perez had told press during a Sept. 21 press conference that the bullet hadn’t been removed during his Sept. 20 visit to the hospital because it was too close to his spine. Austin’s Dell Seton Medical Center had released Garces Perez into ICE custody only four hours after being shot with the bullet still in his body.
Now, Dell Seton’s actions on Sept. 20 are being questioned by Austin-area Catholic advocates and the founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, attorney Jim Harrington. In an Oct. 5 letter, after Garces Perez’s bullet had been removed, they asked the hospital why Garces Perez was released into immigration detention before his medical treatment was fully completed.
“We are also concerned that, if Dell Seton was unable or unwilling to continue his care, he was not transferred to another appropriate medical facility or medical professionals who could do so. Instead, ICE transported Mr. Garcés-Pérez to the Pearsall detention center, which is not a medical facility,” they wrote.
On Sept. 22, an Ascension Seton spokesperson wrote to the Chronicle and other outlets that “established procedures and policies related to interactions with law enforcement” were “strictly followed” by the hospital that day.
“We find that response troubling. If the circumstances surrounding Mr. Garcés-Pérez’s release were indeed consistent with standard procedures, then we believe those procedures themselves warrant careful review,” the letter’s co-signers continued, demanding that Dell Seton and Ascension Seton explain “what policies govern the treatment, discharge, and transfer of patients who are in ICE custody or who may be taken into ICE custody.”
ICE’s Body Cam Footage
Just a day before his surgery to remove the bullet from his back, last Wednesday, Sept. 30, Garces Perez appeared in federal court in Austin under a new criminal charge: that Garces Perez had used his vehicle as a “dangerous and deadly weapon,” hit an ICE agent with his side mirror, and attempted to hit the agent a second time before being shot on Sept. 20, per the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The federal government made that argument before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell, bringing in Rick Bazan, a DHS agent investigating Garces Perez’s case, to testify. They also showed the court footage taken by one of the involved ICE agents’ body-worn camera, which has not been made public. The agent who shot Garces Perez was not wearing a body camera that day, Bazan testified.
According to Bazan, in North Austin on the day Garces Perez was shot, the two ICE agents were doing “random checks in random places,” running license plate numbers through an online database to try to find people “to remove from the United States.”
ICE agents had pulled over Garces Perez after running his license plate while he was inside a restaurant. Once pulled over, the body camera footage captured a conversation in Spanish between Garces Perez and the masked ICE agent who shot him, during which the agent identified himself as “immigration” and refused Garces Perez’s request to re-park his car himself.
Soon after, Garces Perez rolled up his window and drove off, which DHS claims is the moment he struck the ICE agent in the torso with his driver’s side mirror. What followed was a vehicle pursuit, the two ICE agents’ unmarked SUVs pursuing Garces Perez’s blue Toyota sedan.
Both the ICE agents and Garces Perez ran through stop signs and traffic lights, Bazan testified, and the ICE agents’ vehicle lights and sirens were activated. The video showed the agent with the body camera calling someone, saying, “We’re in the middle of a pursuit right now.”
Even from the body camera footage, it’s evident the ICE agent drove at high speeds, making multiple turns. He laughed while pursuing Garces Perez.
That ICE agent apparently lost Garces Perez and his partner and called his partner to no answer. About two minutes later, the partner called back to report that he had shot Garces Perez after “he had tried to strike him with his vehicle,” Bazan testified.
As of the day of the hearing, the Austin Police Department had not received those evidentiary materials for the new criminal charge from DHS. “APD remains in communication with HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and has requested evidentiary materials be shared within a specified timeframe. Those materials have not yet been received, and APD’s investigation remains active and ongoing,” a spokesperson wrote to the Chronicle on Sept. 30.
Judge Howell denied Garces Perez bond on Sept. 30 and released him back into federal criminal custody. Howell decided that Garces Perez presents a flight risk, citing that Garces Perez had fled from the ICE agents on Sept. 20 and that most of his family still lives in Venezuela.
On Sept. 30, a memo obtained by the Associated Press ordered ICE agents to no longer engage in vehicle pursuits under any circumstances. “You should have done this a long time ago, ICE,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said on social media.
This article appears in October 9 • 2026.
