(AFP) – A Venezuelan national was shot and wounded by a US immigration agent, Texas officials said on Sunday as they voiced outrage and demanded a thorough investigation. Heavily armed and often masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, tasked with enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, have faced nationwide backlash for aggressive and often violent tactics, including the shooting of American citizens. The man, identified by his lawyer as 28-year-old Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, has been taken into custody, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Monday.
DHS said it was leading an investigation into the officer involved in the shooting, with the help of the FBI. The wounded man’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said on X that Garces Perez had been shot by an ICE agent while making “a DoorDash delivery.” Garces Perez, who was shot in the torso, was taken to a hospital in Austin in a serious but stable condition, officials said, before being taken into custody. The shooting took place during a “significant increase, almost overnight” of ICE operations in the Texas capital, Mayor Kirk Watson told a news conference.
DHS said on X that “the illegal alien’s condition is stable, and he is in federal custody pending removal.” The department stated that the man had “illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.” Texas Democratic Representative Greg Casar and lawyer Lincoln-Goldfinch confirmed that Garces Perez had been taken into custody. “If ICE deports him, the key witness to their shooting disappears,” Casar said. “He must not be removed from this country, and he must receive proper medical care.”
– ‘Credibility of ICE’ –
Mayor Watson expressed that he was “very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE.” He stated that local law enforcement should be involved in the investigation. “The credibility of ICE doing some form of investigation just by itself and excluding others would not be appropriate,” Watson said. House Democrat Casar echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that “ICE has not been truthful in shootings in other cities.” Casar cited the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, in which video footage belied ICE accounts that she had attempted to run over a federal agent.
“It is awful that this horror has come to our doorstep,” Casar said. “A few weeks ago as we saw the ICE surge come… I and others said that ICE needed to leave before someone was shot.” He called for the release of body camera footage of Sunday’s incident. The shooting sparked outrage in the community, with video footage posted to social media by local news outlets showing several dozen people protesting at the site of the shooting.
Donald Trump campaigned for president in 2016 and again in 2024 on a promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants, and has taken a series of dramatic actions since returning to the White House aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings. Nearly 51,000 undocumented migrants were arrested in the United States in August, according to DHS figures. Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot by ICE in March 2025, in what the Texas Tribune said was the first known killing by immigration agents of an American in Trump’s second term.
– Moisés ÁVILA
© 2024 AFP
