ICE shoots Wilber Rafael Garces Perez and locks him away
By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso ·
An ICE agent shot a Venezuelan driver in Austin, denying him medical care and exposing the brutal reality of an unaccountable federal security state.
They ram your car, they shoot you in the back, and then they make you disappear
Let’s start where the policy lands, because it never lands in the air-conditioned briefing rooms of Washington or on the manicured lawns of the state Capitol. It lands on the pavement of North Austin, right where U.S. 183 meets Anderson Square. It lands on 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national. He entered the United States using the "CBP One" mobile app. He held a valid work permit and was simply trying to earn a living delivering for DoorDash on a Sunday afternoon.
According to reporting from kut.org and Free Malaysia Today, Garces Perez was driving his bright blue sedan. An unmarked black SUV pulled up beside him without turning on any lights or sirens. The agents tried to sideswipe his car twice. Garces Perez made a U-turn under a bridge to find a safe, well-lit place to pull over. The federal agents chased him down, rammed his car again, jumped out, and shot him in the back. As reported by FOX 7 Austin and DW, paramedics arrived within about 3 1/2 minutes. They rushed him to Dell Seton Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the torso.
Yet what happened next exposes the rot at the heart of our immigration apparatus. Garces Perez was discharged from the hospital with a bullet lodged near his spinal cord. As he told attorneys, doctors said "they're in a hurry to get you out of here" to hand him over to immigration enforcement. As Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch detailed to reporters, security staff initially lied. They claimed Garces Perez was not at Dell Seton, locking his wife and lawyer out. Federal authorities then transferred him 135 miles southwest to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas. There, still in excruciating pain with a fractured clavicle, he was forced to sleep on a concrete floor.
This is not law enforcement. This is state-sponsored violence masquerading as border security, executed by an agency that has grown monstrously fat and unaccountable under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.
The machinery of impunity and the script of the vanishing witness
To understand how a federal agent can shoot an unarmed driver and spirit him away, look at the post-9/11 security state. This machinery operates on the exact same logic as the Shooting of George Floyd. It relies on excessive, lethal force against a vulnerable person of color. Agents view themselves as an occupying force above the law, erasing the victim's humanity. Whether it is a knee on a neck in Minneapolis or an unmarked SUV ramming a driver in North Austin, the mechanism is identical. A badge is treated as a license to inflict violence with absolute impunity.
The Department of Homeland Security is following a well-worn playbook to sweep this crime under the rug. Federal authorities have a chilling precedent for silencing victims of enforcement violence. In August 2026, they wrongfully deported U.S. citizen Brian José Morales García from Austin to Mexico before local officials could intervene. The agency already issued a defensive statement on X about Garces Perez. They called him a man from Venezuela "who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal". That conveniently ignores his valid work permit and a missed court notice sent to an old address.
This is the Zero Tolerance Policy in action. It is a bureaucratic machine designed to bypass due process and shield trigger-happy agents. It deports key witnesses before independent investigators can extract the bullet or review dashcam footage. As Austin Mayor Kirk Watson rightly noted to DW, rogue ICE operations have created chaos. He said residents have every right to feel terrified in their own neighborhoods. Congressman Greg Casar demanded transparency, an independent investigation, and the shooter's immediate suspension. He named the fundamental truth: we built a federal police force that can shoot you and vanish you from the country.
When the community says enough is enough at the Capitol gates
The rage spilling out onto the streets of Austin is the natural response to treating people as disposable files. About 100 demonstrators gathered at the front gates of the Texas State Capitol, as reported by cbsaustin.com. They carried signs to condemn the shooting and demand an end to ICE operations. Protester Lucille Gonzalez called the attack "vile". Joanna Champaigne expressed horror that agents shot a neighbor and released him with a bullet in his body.
Predictably, the state responded to peaceful grief with more violence. As demonstrators blocked Research Boulevard and Anderson Square, state troopers and APD officers deployed chemical agents. They fired pepper balls into the crowd. APD Chief Lisa Davis defended the crackdown, declaring that acts of violence toward officers would result in arrest. Police vehicles were damaged, and multiple people were arrested.
Congressman Lloyd Doggett urged peaceful political action at the ballot box. Yet citizens know ballots alone cannot stop an agency that answers to no local authority. Less than three months prior, ICE fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. The body count keeps rising as budgets grow, treating working people as targets in a domestic war.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez must immediately receive comprehensive medical care from civilian doctors, free from detention guards. The Department of Homeland Security must release all unedited video footage. The federal agent who fired the shot must be suspended and prosecuted under Texas state law. All removal proceedings against Garces Perez must be permanently halted. He must be allowed to heal and testify as a co-equal party in the pursuit of justice.
Sources
- cbsaustin.com: Austin protests against ICE resume after agent shoots Venezuelan national
- kut.org: Man shot by ICE in Austin says he has a bullet lodged in his back and was denied medical care
- FOX 7 Austin: ICE agent shoots man in Austin, victim hospitalized
- DW: US: Man wounded in Texas after being shot by ICE agent
- Free Malaysia Today: Man shot by ICE agent in Texas detained with bullet inside him, says lawyer