ICE shot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez and tried to hide him
By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso ·
After ICE shot a delivery driver in Austin, federal agents hurried him into detention with a bullet in his back to silence a key witness.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez was just trying to finish his DoorDash deliveries in Austin. He is 28 years old. Instead of a tip, he got a bullet in the back of his neck. Now he is sitting in a cold room in Pearsall, Texas, sleeping on a floor with that metal still lodged near his spine. This is not a "security operation." It is a crime committed by the state, followed by a desperate attempt to hide the witness. The Department of Homeland Security and its agency, ICE, are wrong. They shot a working man and then tried to disappear him before he could tell the truth.
The bullet they refuse to remove
The violence started on Sunday, September 20, 2026. An unmarked black SUV tried to sideswipe Wilber. He made a U-turn under a highway bridge to park. KUT reports that ICE agents sideswiped him again and shot him in the back of the neck. A video captured the screech of tires and the sound of gunshots. It shows Wilber in a blue sedan, clutching his chest. A woman in the video asks why they did that to him. She says in Spanish that they shot him just because he did not want to stop. Qué sin vergüenza.
The cruelty did not end with the trigger. Wilber was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center. He says the doctors did not remove the bullet because it was too close to his spine. He also says ICE pushed the hospital to release him quickly. Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch says security staff lied and claimed Wilber was not even there. They forced his wife and lawyer off the grounds like trespassers.
ICE then hauled him 130 miles southwest to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall. He arrived at 4 a.m. and complained of pain. He received no medical treatment until a single, unknown pill on Monday morning.
A permit is not a target
The Department of Homeland Security tried to paint Wilber as a criminal. They stated on X that he entered the country illegally and had a final order of removal. This is the strongest case the agency can make. They want you to believe that a piece of paper justifies a bullet.
But the facts tell a different story. Lincoln-Goldfinch says Wilber entered legally using the CBP One app. He had a valid work permit. He missed a court hearing only because the notice went to an old address. This is a clerical error, not a crime. Even if he had no papers at all, the law does not give la migra a license to shoot a delivery driver in the back.
The federal government is using "illegal status" as a shield for brutality. Rep. Greg Casar is right. The government should not be allowed to shoot you and then disappear you so no one is held responsible. This is a tactic of silence.
The machinery of the disappearances
This shooting was not a fluke. It happened during a massive enforcement surge. NBC News reports that ICE made more than 50,000 arrests a month in July and August. When you turn the city into a war zone, people get killed. Two months ago, an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. A week later, another officer killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. Neither man was an intended target.
The only reason we know the truth about Wilber is the phone in a bystander's hand. This is the same mechanism we saw in the Death of Oscar Grant. In both cases, the capture of state violence on bystander video is the only reliable counter-narrative to official reports. Without that video, the agency would have simply called it a "dangerous pursuit."
Now, Secretary Markwayne Mullin is overseeing an agency that treats Austin like occupied territory. Mayor Kirk Watson says the "rogue nature of ICE" has created chaos.
ICE will move to deport Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez to Venezuela before a surgeon can remove that bullet or a judge can hear his testimony. They will claim the blue Toyota Corolla was a "deadly weapon" to exonerate the agent. They will use federal supremacy to block Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis from getting the truth. Justice requires that Wilber be released to medical care immediately. He is the key witness to a federal crime, and he deserves to be treated as a victim, not a prisoner.