A federal judge has scheduled a hearing to determine whether a Venezuelan man shot by an immigration agent in Austin on Sunday should be deported as concerns persist about his medical care in custody, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The man, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken from a detention center to a hospital in San Antonio after he complained that he was not able to move his left arm, said his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
Mr. Garces Perez was released from the hospital at midnight and is now back at the deportation center in Pearsall, Texas, where a bullet remains lodged near the back of his neck, Ms. Lincoln-Goldfinch said. Mr. Garces Perez has not been told why doctors have not removed the bullet, she added.
“They shackled him yesterday in waist chains and handcuffs and ankle chains, and took him to the hospital in San Antonio, where they gave him a morphine drip and tended to his wound,” Ms. Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “He is currently only on Tylenol, ibuprofen, and he reports that he’s in isolation.”
Court records show that Mr. Garces Perez had asked a federal judge to block his deportation and order his release. U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia of the Western District of Texas scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30 and ordered Mr. Garces Perez to appear in person.
On Monday, Mr. Garces Perez called into a news conference from the detention center and said that he had felt only one gunshot enter his body after a federal officer shot him during a traffic stop Sunday afternoon while delivering food for DoorDash.
Mr. Garces Perez said that he had been bleeding and was in pain, but was released from a hospital hours after he was wounded. He that a doctor had told him that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were in a hurry to take him to detention.
Representatives from D.H.S. and ICE on Tuesday did not respond to questions about Mr. Garces Perez’s account. It is unclear if the agent was wearing a body cam.
The episode unfolded Sunday in northwest Austin, as ICE agents checking license plates discovered that Mr. Garces Perez had a deportation order on file.
Agents told Mr. Garces Perez that they were ICE agents and that he was going to be arrested, according to two people granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. Mr. Garces Perez then fled in his car.
A short chase ensued before ICE agents encountered Mr. Garces Perez again. He did not appear to be the target of a federal investigation before the encounter, the two people said.
During the news conference Monday afternoon, Mr. Garces Perez told reporters that he had been making a delivery when an S.U.V. had tried to hit his car. He said he thought it was an aggressive driver and kept driving. Mr. Garces Perez then said the S.U.V. then hit his vehicle and turned on police lights after the collision. He was shot after the car was stopped.
The shooting was the second in Texas by an ICE agent since July and the latest in a string of similar episodes involving federal immigration agents across the nation. More than 20 people have been shot at by ICE since President Trump took office last year, nearly all in cars, and some fatally.
The Homeland Security Investigations unit of D.H.S. and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are leading the investigation into the shooting of Mr. Garces Perez, a spokesman for D.H.S. said. The local district attorney is also investigating.
Calls for an independent investigation continue to grow. More than 100 members of Congress signed a letter that demanded Mr. Garces Perez receive proper medical care and called for his release. The letter also called for the release of unedited video footage of the encounter and other evidence.
Mr. Garces Perez has told his immigration lawyer that he entered the United States in 2024 seeking asylum and later got a work permit. At one point, he changed his address, and a hearing notice was sent to his former home. He didn’t know that he had an immigration hearing and did not go, which led to the deportation order, his attorney said.
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