Man shot by ICE back in hospital with bullet in back
Anna Wilder and Jesse Bedayn |
A Venezuelan man who was shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and held at a Texas detention centre with a bullet still lodged in his back, has been returned to hospital.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters.
He was shot and taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later on Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.
Speaking by phone during a news conference on Monday, Perez had said doctors didn’t remove the bullet because it’s near his spine.
He said ICE pressed for him to be released quickly from the hospital so it could move him to a detention centre.
He said he had received no pain medication or treatment there, and had slept on the floor, before eventually being given a “pill” by a nurse on Monday.
By Monday night, Lincoln-Goldfinch said he had been taken to the hospital.
Perez said earlier on Monday that ICE officers didn’t ask him to stop or turn on any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him. He said he did a U-turn and was trying to park when the officers rammed his car and shot him in the back of the neck.
“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone during the news conference.
Perez had been detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall where he was being interrogated.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the US illegally who “had a final order of removal”.
Perez entered the US legally in 2024 after using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that set up appointments with US authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.
He was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
She said a judge issued a deportation order for Perez after he missed a hearing in immigration court because the hearing notice was sent to a former address.
“Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said on X.
The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the US during Trump’s second term. During the summer, it reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August .
Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.
Protesters gathered outside the Texas Capitol in Austin on Monday night, chanting against ICE and carrying signs that said such things as, “Justice 4 Wilber Perez”.
AP