Update: As of Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 22, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportation of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, ordering that he be physically present for a first hearing scheduled for Sept. 30, according to his attorney. Read more in this week’s issue.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and seriously wounded 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in North Austin near Anderson Square and Highway 183 while he was completing a DoorDash delivery.
His family’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, reported via social media Sunday that the ICE agent shot Garces Perez through the back window of his car, where the bullet entered his upper back, near the neck.
Lincoln-Goldfinch further detailed the incident based on Garces Perez’s account at a Monday press conference. “He said he was driving for DoorDash and an unmarked black truck sideswiped him. He didn’t know it was ICE,” she said.
Garces Perez thought it was an aggressive driver, and he attempted to U-turn under the highway overpass. The ICE agents sideswiped him again with their car. Next, “the agents came out and shot him in the back of the neck, and pulled him out of the car.”
Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Rob Luckritz said his department received word of the shooting from the Austin Police Department at 12:56pm. On the scene, Garces Perez was suffering from the gunshot wound.
“The patient was stable, vital signs were stable, but in serious condition,” Luckritz said during a press conference Sunday afternoon. “They were transported off the scene … to a local trauma center, as I said, in serious but stable condition.”
At the Monday press conference, Garces Perez spoke about his experience over a phone call that was relayed aloud by a translator. Garces Perez was taken to the Dell Seton Medical Center, where he said he received no medical treatment.
“He was complaining that he was in a lot of pain, and he’s like, ‘Are you going to take out the bullet wound?’ And the doctor said, ‘Hey, they’re in a hurry to get you out of here,’” the translator recounted on Garces Perez’s behalf.
A mere four hours later, around 4:30pm, Garces Perez was transferred to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall southwest of Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
The bullet is still lodged in his upper back, Garces Perez said over the phone Monday afternoon. He was made to sleep in a “very cold room” Sunday night that had no bed, and was given no pain medication for his gunshot wound. “He’s saying that he’s in a lot of pain, and that they did not take out the bullet because it was close to his spine,” the translator relayed, with Garces Perez on the phone.
“He is being held at Pearsall for interrogation, and still has the bullet lodged in his body,” Lincoln-Goldfinch confirmed.
In the hours after the shooting, “Reports were circulating that Wilber had died. His wife was hyperventilating. She still had no information,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. It wasn’t until about 6pm, after Mayor Kirk Watson aided in coordinating communication, that a hospital attorney called and told them that Garces Perez had been released from the hospital into ICE custody.
Across the street from the site where the shooting occurred, Austinites immediately gathered to protest against ICE, chanting “Shame!” in megaphones. The crowd repeatedly called the federal agents asesinos, or murderers. Law enforcement later deployed tear gas and pepper spray against the protesters, including children. Another protest is planned to take place at the Texas State Capitol Monday night.
Garces Perez came to the U.S. from Venezuela as an asylum seeker in 2024, was inspected and admitted at the border, and granted permission to legally work in the U.S., Lincoln-Goldfinch and U.S. Rep. Greg Casar said Monday.
A notice to appear in immigration court was sent to Garces Perez’s old address, leading ICE to issue a deportation order for Garces Perez “in absentia” when he missed the hearing. “The court is notorious for sending notices of hearings to the wrong address,” the attorney added.
Late Sunday night, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement claiming Garces Perez had “illegally entered” the country and “had a final order of removal.”
“Immigration status nor the color of our skin should be a death sentence. Neither should make us targets for violence,” David Chincanchan of the Workers Defense Action Fund emphasized during Monday’s press conference.
The shooting also comes weeks after city and local officials warned of increased ICE presence in the North Austin area, where Sunday’s shooting occurred.
“It is awful that this horror has come to our doorstep. And as [Austin Mayor Kirk Watson] said, unfortunately, it is not a surprise,” Casar said during the Sunday press conference. “Just a few weeks ago … I and others said that ICE needed to leave before someone was shot – like in Minneapolis, or like in Corpus Christi, or like in Chicago. And that day is here.”
Following the shooting on Sunday, Austin City Council members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, and Chito Vela called for ICE to “leave Austin now,” and urged APD to lead an investigation of the shooting independent from the federal agencies.
“We have no confidence in an internal investigation from DHS or DOJ. We urge APD to immediately open an independent investigation, with a review of the evidence by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, as is protocol in other police shootings,” they wrote in a joint statement. “The people of Austin deserve answers, and we demand full transparency and accountability.”
On Sunday afternoon, Watson confirmed that APD will be “involved in an investigation” of the shooting “in such a way that a clear-eyed third party will also be involved.” He and other state officials also requested that all officers involved in the shooting remain in Austin and the state of Texas to comply with the investigation.
At Monday’s press conference, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett called the shooting “the latest example of the brutality of ICE.”
“I am concerned about this young man who was serving our community in his own way, who was working, helping his family, and who appears to have been treated in the most brutal way,” Doggett continued. “Today, instead of being in surgery to remove a bullet, he’s in Pearsall.”
Doggett also emphasized that “ICE has no credibility anymore” to investigate its own officers’ crimes. “It lies. We know it lies.”
