(AFP) – A Venezuelan national shot and wounded by a US immigration agent in Texas was jailed with the bullet still inside his body, his lawyer said Monday. The man, identified as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to his torso, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The shooting in Austin, Texas on Sunday marked the latest instance of violence by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who have been tasked with enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Garces Perez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said on X that her client was transferred to a detention center in Pearsall, located about 134 miles (215 kilometers) southwest of Austin.
“He is being held at Pearsall for interrogation and still has the bullet lodged in his body,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said, adding: “He’s received no pain medication and had to sleep on the floor.” Lincoln-Goldfinch and local police said Garces Perez had been conducting a DoorDash delivery when he was approached by ICE agents, who shot him in the torso. He was taken to the hospital before he was discharged into federal custody.
DHS said on X that the man had “illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.” But Lincoln-Goldfinch maintained Garces Perez was in the US “legally with a work permit.” At the site where the shooting occurred, workers prepared to cover up graffiti against ICE that had been written on concrete pillars with spray paint.
A makeshift shrine with flowers, candles, and a sign reading “Justice 4 Wilber” was also placed near the site. Trump campaigned for president on a promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants, and has taken a series of dramatic actions since returning to the White House. 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. More recently, a Mexican man named Lorenzo Salgado died in July after he was shot by an ICE officer in Houston, Texas.
© 2024 AFP
