Congressman Says Venezuelan Man Shot by ICE Needs Surgery After Arrest

AUSTIN, Texas – A Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas and later placed in detention may need surgery to remove a bullet lodged near his spine, according to a Democratic member of Congress who visited him Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar met with 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez at a federal detention facility in South Texas. Garces Perez was taken there after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot him in Austin on Sunday.

Casar said Garces Perez was using a wheelchair and continued to experience pain. He did not say whether Garces Perez’s family had made a final decision about surgery. The Department of Homeland Security said the man, who has been treated at a hospital twice since the shooting, is receiving continuous medical attention and medication for pain.

“If they want to call this excellent medical care, then excellent care should begin today,” Casar said. He urged officials to transfer Garces Perez from detention to a hospital or physician and said any procedure chosen by the family should not be postponed.

Garces Perez remains held at a Texas detention facility

Casar, whose congressional district covers Austin, is the first member of Congress known to have visited Garces Perez since the shooting. He said the wound on the man’s back was still bleeding and that medical workers were replacing the dressing two or three times each day.

After Casar’s visit and a news conference, DHS reiterated its denial of claims that Garces Perez had been made to sleep on the floor or blocked from having the bullet removed. The agency said ICE does not make recommendations about medical procedures for people in its custody.

Garces Perez was completing a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked vehicle struck his car twice, attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said. He was shot and transported to a hospital, but was later released into ICE custody with the bullet still lodged in his back, she said.

ICE and DHS have offered few details about the circumstances of the shooting, saying only that Garces Perez was involved in “a targeted vehicle stop.”

ICE has not disclosed whether the agent who fired the weapon was wearing a body camera. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in early September that he expected all field agents to be equipped with the cameras by the end of the month.

Body camera video from Austin police officers who arrived shortly after the shooting has been released. The footage shows Garces Perez hunched over in the front seat, clutching his shoulder and rocking back and forth. An officer later cut away his shirt, revealing an injury on his upper back.

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Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez entered the United States in 2024 through CBP One, a Biden-era program that allowed migrants to schedule appointments with U.S. officials while seeking asylum. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.

According to his attorney, Garces Perez was an asylum seeker with a valid work permit. She said an immigration judge later ordered his deportation after he missed a court appearance because the hearing notice had been mailed to an outdated address.

ICE enforcement surge in Austin results in more than 1,000 arrests

The shooting occurred after ICE significantly expanded enforcement across Austin and nearby suburbs during the summer. Operations increasingly focused on immigrants in public spaces, including people who had no criminal records.

ICE recorded more than 1,000 arrests in Austin, Pflugerville and surrounding communities during June and July. That was an increase of more than 80% from the previous year’s high, based on ICE data supplied to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles. The Associated Press analyzed the figures.

The Austin increase differed from enforcement surges in some other areas, where arrests were fueled by cooperation with local police or by transfers from jails. In Austin, the data indicates that ICE officers made most arrests directly in the community, often through traffic stops and other enforcement activity.

The data also shows that nearly two-thirds of those arrested in the Austin area had neither a criminal conviction nor a pending criminal case.

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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.