Venezuelan immigrant Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, remains under custody of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) in southern Texas with a bullet housed near his spine, a day after a federal agent shot him during an operation in Austin.
Garcés was transferred to the South Texas ICE Processing Center, in Pearsall, after receiving care at the Dell Seton Medical Center. Her attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, on Monday that her client was still injured and did not receive the treatment she thought she needed.
“He is held in Pearsall to be interrogated and still has the bullet housed in his body. he has not received analgesics and has had to sleep on the floor,” Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote in X.
Garcés himself intervened by phone on Monday during a press conference of his lawyers. He explained that the doctors decided not to extract the projectile due to its proximity to the spine and said that, after being delivered to the federal authorities, he spent part of the morning in a cell.
“I’m not getting the medical care I need,” the Venezuelan said from the detention center.
I am representing Wilbur – the man who was shot by ICE in Austin, TX while he was in the middle of a DoorDash delivery.The hospital refused to give his wife access to him or provide any meaningful details on his condition.
The incident occurred shortly before 13:00 on Sunday, September 20, in northern Austin, near the U.S. intersection. 183 and Anderson Square. Emergency services initially that Garcés had received a shot in the torso and was taken to the hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The circumstances that caused the shooting are still under investigation and there are differences between the first official reports and the immigrant’s account.
Garcés said he was working as a DoorDash distributor when an unidentified truck hit him laterally on two occasions. According to his version, he initially did not understand that they were migrant agents. After taking a round in U below an elevated step, he said, the federal vehicle lit the lights and siren.
The Venezuelan said he asked to stop in a safer place because he was in the middle of the traffic. “I asked him if he could stop in a safer place,” he said before explaining that he was shot in the back.
In contrast, the first reports provided to local authorities referred to a persecution. The Texas Department of Public Security said it had received a request to assist in a vehicle pursuit, but its agents arrived after the shootings occurred.
The Department of National Security (DHS) that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), backed by the FBI, is leading the investigation into the use of the weapon by the ICE agent.
The migration status of Garcés also faces opposite versions. The DHS said the Venezuelan illegally entered the United States during the Joe Biden Administration and was subject to a definitive deportation order.
His lawyers rejected that description. Lincoln-Goldfinch explained that Garcés arrived in the United States in 2024 via CBP One, the app used during Biden’s government for certain migrants to request appointments at ports of entry. After being prosecuted by the migration authorities, he entered the country, applied for asylum and subsequently obtained a work permit.
According to the defense, Garcés updated his domicile before the migratory court, but the notification of an audience was sent to an earlier address. By not appearing, a judge issued an order of deportation in absentia, that is, in his absence.
