The man who was shot by an immigration officer in Austin said Monday that he was hastily discharged from a local hospital with a bullet still lodged near his spine and taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers within hours of the incident.
Wilber Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan national, told reporters by cellphone that he was “not doing well” after spending Sunday night sleeping on a floor in a cold room at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles southwest of Austin. Garcés, who spoke in Spanish, said he complained repeatedly about being in pain but was not offered medical care until a nurse gave him a pill early Monday, according to an associate who translated his remarks at a news conference arranged by his attorney.
Garcés’s first public statements came as federal authorities said they are investigating the shooting, which took place Sunday when an ICE agent fired at least one shot while attempting to arrest him during a traffic stop.
Department of Homeland Security officials did not respond to questions about the shooting or the claims from Garcés and his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, about his medical care and the events that led to the shooting. Earlier Monday, DHS said Garcés was in stable condition and in federal custody “pending removal” from the country. The agency said he has a final deportation order.
Garcés’s supporters are calling on DHS to release any video footage of the incident and are demanding an independent investigation.
“He needs a doctor and not a deportation,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas). “The federal government can’t shoot someone and then try to make them disappear to escape scrutiny.”
Lincoln-Goldfinch said her client had entered the country lawfully through DHS’s CBP One app, which immigrants used during the Biden administration to schedule an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and seek asylum. The Trump administration ended that program last year.
She said Garcés had a work permit and earned a living as a DoorDash delivery driver. However, Lincoln-Goldfinch said, Garcés had moved to a new address and missed an asylum hearing after a notice was mailed to his old residence. An immigration judge issued him a final removal order in absentia, she said.
“There is absolutely zero justification for him to be shot in the back of the neck,” she said. “ICE officers are over-armed, overpaid, under-trained and violent.” Lincoln-Goldfinch said she intends to seek a temporary restraining order and will file a habeas corpus petition to try to prevent Garcés from being deported.
Sunday’s incident marked the latest in a string of shootings in which federal immigration and border agents have fired at drivers while trying to conduct traffic stops, sometimes fatally.
In July, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national and longtime U.S. resident, in Houston. Days later, an officer fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian man, in Maine. In January, an immigration officer shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis. All three were in their vehicles when they were killed.
In several shootings, the Trump administration has released statements that declared officers justified before an investigation was complete. In some cases, video evidence has raised questions or contradicted what officials described.
At the news conference in Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said her client was on his way to make a DoorDash delivery when his vehicle was sideswiped by an unmarked black truck. Garcés told reporters that the truck had not activated police lights or a siren, and he did not know it was an ICE vehicle. He said he attempted to make a U-turn to find a place to pull over when the truck sideswiped him again, and then an ICE officer shot him.
Garcés’s wife, Elizdar, received a call from her husband at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the attorney said. He told her he had been shot before the call cut out. Lincoln-Goldfinch said she and Elizdar were later told by hospital officials that ICE had taken custody of Garcés about four hours after he arrived at the hospital.
“Think about that: A man is shot by a federal agent, and the next thing the public hears from the Department of Homeland Security is that he is pending removal — not that he is getting care, not that his family is told where he is,” said Juan Proaño, chief executive of LULAC, an immigrant rights group. “The indifference is calculated here.”
A Facebook live stream by bystander Heidi Ann Clark captured the moment of the shooting. In the video, Clark is seen reacting to sirens and the sound of vehicles screeching to a stop. Then, Clark flips the camera view around to reveal two vehicles stopped beneath an underpass — Garcés’s blue Toyota Corolla facing west, and the black ICE SUV pulled alongside it in the opposite direction.
An officer appears to step out from the driver’s side of the SUV, walk around the front of the SUV and approach the front passenger side of the Toyota. Several gunshots are heard.
The Corolla slowly rolls forward, and an ICE officer runs after it and approaches the driver side. Clark did not respond to requests for comment but told Storyful that the incident was “very traumatic.”
Garcés’s brother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want public attention, said their family is from the Yaracuy state in Venezuela. He said his brother had studied engineering but was unable to complete his studies and arrived in the United States around 2023.
“He crossed with an appointment,” he said. “He’s not involved in anything bad; he’s a good kid.”
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