Immigrant shot by ICE says he was hauled off to detention center with a bullet still in his back

A Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer says he was moved into a detention center with a bullet still lodged near his spine within hours of the incident.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, who has since been admitted to another hospital, told reporters by phone Monday that he is “not doing well” after he was moved from a hospital in Austin, Texas into a remote Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center roughly 130 miles away.

“I have not received the necessary medical attention,” he told reporters in Spanish.

Garcés Pérez was making DoorDash deliveries on Sunday afternoon when an ICE officer fired into his blue Toyota Corolla during a traffic stop, striking him in the torso, according to his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. He was handcuffed, shackled at the feet, placed in a waist chain and taken to a hospital, she said.

Four hours later, with a bullet still lodged near his spine, he was moved to the South Texas ICE Processing Center, where he writhed in pain without a bed or medication, she said. Another detainee told her that Garcés Pérez lost feeling on the left side of his body, including his arm and leg, she said.

“We need answers. We need to know that Wilber is safe and receiving appropriate medical care. So far, he has not,” she wrote Monday.

The incident is the latest in a streak of shootings by ICE agents during traffic stops in recent months, including the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who were fatally shot within days of each other in July.

In January, an ICE agent killed Renée Good in Minneapolis while she was behind the wheel of her car amid citywide protests against a surge of immigration enforcement officers into the city.

All three were in their cars when they were killed.

Donald Trump’s administration has sought to characterize the shootings as justified before any investigations were performed, let alone completed, while video evidence and witness statements either contradicted official narratives or raised critical questions about the use of lethal force.

ICE’s investigative arm Homeland Security Investigations, with the assistance of the FBI, is leading the investigation into the shooting of Garcés Pérez, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The agency said Garcés Pérez is in “stable” condition and remains in federal custody pending his removal from the U.S.

Homeland Security claims Garcés Pérez illegally entered the U.S. during Joe Biden’s administration and had a final order of removal, but his attorney said he legally entered using the CBP One app, which allowed noncitizens to schedule appointments at ports of entry to seek legal entry and seek asylum and other immigration relief before arriving at the U.S. border.

Last year, the Trump administration abruptly ended the program and moved to terminate legal status for every person who used the app to enter the country, leaving tens of thousands of immigrants vulnerable to arrest and removal.

In March, a federal judge determined that those blanket cancellations, which were carried out in mass emails telling recipients to leave the country, were unlawful.

“Wilber is a legal immigrant who entered legally through a port of entry where he was inspected and admitted by [Customs and Border Protection],” according to Lincoln-Goldfinch.

“His immigration matters do not negate his humanity. At all,” she added. “This man belongs at back home in Austin with his wife. And I will not stop fighting until he’s safe at home.”

She is expected to file a lawsuit to prevent his removal from the country.

Recounting the incident Monday to reporters, Garcés Pérez said an SUV tried to hit his car, and he continued along his delivery route to avoid what he thought was an aggressive driver, he said.

The SUV then hit his car and turned its police lights on, he said. An ICE officer then approached Garcés Pérez and asked him for his immigration documents and to get out of the car, according to Garcés Pérez.

The officer then blocked him from moving his car to the shoulder of the road, but Garcés Pérez tried to make a loop to park the car in a secure spot, he said.

The agent then opened fire, he said.

“I couldn’t move,” Garcés Pérez told reporters in Spanish. “I was practically dizzy.”

Videos of the incident that circulated on social media appear to capture the sound of sirens and screeching tires, then show an officer getting out of the driver’s side of an unmarked SUV.

The officer can be seen on the side of the vehicle as it rolls forward slightly, then three gunshots ring out.

“Part of what makes me angry about this, part of what makes me so unhappy about it, is that we live in a time where there's a politics of fear, where people are trying to create fear,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said after the shooting.

Watson said there was “no reason for us to be surprised” by the shooting, given “the nature of ICE and how it’s doing its business” in other cities. He called for an independent, third-party investigation, saying it “would not be appropriate” to let ICE perform the probe.