Off the Kuff

Amazing.

The reporters, activists, and politicians all leaned forward in the heat, straining to hear the voice coming out of the cell phone, which was held to a microphone by a woman who alternately listened and translated what the voice was saying. The voice belonged to Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who had been shot by an ICE agent the day before in North Austin. Perez had been delivering food for DoorDash when he was stopped, shot in the upper back, then taken to Dell Seton Medical Center. His wife, Elizdar, didn’t know where he was until the next morning, when his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, talked to him at the South Texas ICE Processing Center, in Pearsall, where Perez had been transferred.

Here we all were on Monday afternoon, more than a hundred of us, standing under an oak tree in front of Lincoln-Goldfinch’s law office in Central Austin. It was an astonishing crowd to gather in the middle of a summer’s day, and the sense of frustration and anger was palpable, especially from the two dozen activists holding signs. “ICE: Stop shooting our neighbors” read one; ”Migration is a human right” read another. There were some twenty news cameras—CNN was there and NBC Nightly News—and everyone stood, sweated, and filmed the impassioned words of a dozen speakers, including Lincoln-Goldfinch, Congressmen Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, and Garces Perez.

Then, by chance, Garces Perez called his wife from Pearsall just as Lincoln-Goldfinch opened up the press conference to questions. His attorney asked if he wanted to tell his own story in his own words—and he said yes.

“He’s in a lot of pain,” said Fabiana Meléndez Ruiz, the translator, who does PR for Lincoln-Goldfinch’s firm. “They did not take out the bullet because it was close to his spine.” Garces Perez said he had also suffered a fractured clavicle.

He told her his version of what happened. “He was driving to do a DoorDash delivery,” translated Ruiz, “when an SUV rode next to him and tried to hit him, and he thought it was a drunk driver.” Garces Perez said he tried to give up peacefully. “He did a U-turn to try and find a spot to park so that he could go with them, and they basically ran into him and then shot him.”

A few reporters winced and leaned closer. One of them asked if Garces Perez received any medical attention at Dell Seton, one of the best hospitals in Austin. Ruiz listened and translated. “He says no. He was complaining that he was in a lot of pain, and he’s like, ‘Are you going to take out the bullet wound?’ And the doctor said, ‘Hey, they’re in a hurry to get you out of here.’ When he arrived at the detention center at 4 a.m., he also complained about the pain, and he had to sleep on the floor.”

[…]

Earlier in the press conference, Lincoln-Goldfinch told us that Elizdar had wanted her husband to stay home that day, but he had decided to earn some money instead. “At twelve-thirty, she received a call from him, shouting that he had been shot and he was in pain and then the call cut off and she knew nothing else,” said Lincoln-Goldfinch. Elizdar raced to Seton, but guards wouldn’t let her see him. She still hasn’t seen him.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez entered legally in 2024, had a work permit, and was seeking asylum. But then he moved—and though he notified the court of his new address, when the court sent a hearing notification, it went to his former address. “He didn’t go, and so he got the deportation order, which is a very common thing,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

Still, the attorney wasn’t going to let the government off the hook. “There is absolutely zero justification for having shot him,” she said loudly. “And this is why we’re calling for a stop to ICE traffic stops. ICE officers are overarmed, overpaid, undertrained, and violent. They don’t know how to safely conduct traffic stops.”

See here for the background. As enraging as all of this is, nothing ICE does should be a surprise to anyone. There is one piece of good news:

A federal judge has reportedly granted an emergency order to temporarily stop the deportation of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during an operation in North Austin on Sunday.

Garces Perez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said Tuesday afternoon that a judge has granted the emergency order. She said Garces Perez’s team has filed a federal lawsuit, and the judge ordered that Garces Perez be present at the first hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 30.

[…]

On Monday evening, Congressman Joaquin Castro said Garces Perez was “in tremendous pain” and the bullet was still in his left side. He was losing movement in the left side of his body and was being taken to the hospital, Castro said.

On Tuesday morning, Lincoln Goldfinch said she had to cancel a hospital visit because Garces Perez had been transferred back to detention.

On Monday, Lincoln-Goldfinch provided an account of what happened after the shooting while standing alongside his wife. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez was released into ICE custody about four hours after he was shot, and his family was not initially told where he had been taken or what condition he was in.

Civil rights organizations and Texas lawmakers are calling for an independent investigation into the shooting.

Per TPR, “The Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday it sent a letter to director of ICE and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security requesting to halt Garces Perez’s removal proceedings while its investigation into the shooting continues.” Hopefully he will be out of confinement soon, and will be able to get the treatment he needs. And also per TPR, Austin PD and the Travis County DA’s office are indeed investigating this shooting.

Austin police and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office say they are actively investigating the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez by an ICE officer. But so far, it’s not clear how much evidence they’ll be able to access from the Department of Homeland Security, which is conducting a separate investigation of the incident.

During a news conference on Tuesday, APD Chief Lisa Davis said her detectives are speaking “daily” with DHS and she had no reason to believe the department would withhold information. She said she didn’t know what her detectives had requested or when they expected to receive it.

“These are some of our most elite investigators,” she said. “They are fantastic. I trust them. I trust this investigation and it is absolutely in good hands.”

She also said APD is investigating the shooting alongside Texas Rangers and the Travis County Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney José Garza told KUT that his prosecutors have asked federal investigators for digital and physical evidence to get a “complete accounting” of the shooting. They’ve also asked to interview the ICE officer who shot Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national.

“We’re still awaiting word on whether or not our request will be granted,” he said, adding that the investigation is at a “preliminary moment.”

Good. We know from experience not to expect much, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to make tangible progress. They have a living victim, for starters. I am hopeful they will be able to bring some charges.

And from the “don’t expect any help from ICE or DHS” department:

The ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan man last weekend in Austin was a recent hire who was not wearing his body camera, three officials at the Department of Homeland Security with knowledge of the incident told me. The officer, who has not been publicly identified, was hired last year, according to two of the officials, but he previously worked for another federal law-enforcement agency, one of the officials said. The officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation into the shooting, which left Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez with a bullet lodged in his upper torso, according to his attorney.

ICE officials have rushed to distribute body-worn cameras to officers since the fatal shootings in July of a Mexican construction contractor in Texas and a Colombian delivery driver in Maine. Officers making arrests are required to have the cameras at all times. The agency has directed officers to activate the devices prior to engaging in enforcement activity, the three officials said, and ICE instructs them to stop recording only when the incident has safely concluded. Officers who do not follow these instructions are required to submit a written statement to their supervisors and could face possible disciplinary action, the three officials said.

DHS and ICE public-affairs officials did not immediately respond to questions about the incident in Austin and whether the officer will face consequences.

On Sunday, the officer was working with a partner who was driving in a separate vehicle. That second officer had a body-worn camera that was turned on, two officials told me. The officers were checking license plates using a system that helps them find targets for arrest using commercial databases and federal immigration files. When they ran the plates from the blue Toyota Corolla driven by Garcés Pérez, the officers saw he had an outstanding deportation order from an immigration judge.

The ICE officers, who were driving unmarked vehicles, attempted to pull Garcés Pérez over, but he drove away, nearly striking one of the officers, according to one of the DHS officials. The official said the incident was recorded by the body camera of the ICE officer’s partner. The officers followed Garcés Pérez in their vehicles. The officer without the body camera found Garcés Pérez and attempted to detain him. When Garcés Pérez attempted to drive away again, that officer pulled his gun and fired, striking Garcés Pérez in the back, both of the officials told me. A bystander video recorded just after the shooting shows an officer wearing a cap and a face covering standing next to the Corolla speaking with Garcés Pérez, who clutches at the wound on his back and winces in pain.

[…]

ICE training instructs officers that the use of deadly force against a fleeing suspect is not permissible unless there is an imminent risk of harm to law-enforcement personnel or the public. DHS’s inspector general is investigating the fatal shooting of Durán Guerrero in Maine as well as the killing of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7. The findings from those investigations have not been released.

I’m not holding my breath on either of them. And I doubt this ICE officer will face any internal consequences for the failure to turn on the body camera.

Finally, the Statesman provides some more information about Wilber Rafael Garces Perez.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez came to Austin two years ago, seeking asylum.

The 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant delivered meals for DoorDash to support his family, putting his earnings toward medical care for his son, who has a disability, his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said in a Monday post on Instagram.

[…]

Before he was thrust into national news, Garces Perez was a husband, father and son. He grew up in Yaritagua, Venezuela — known as “Sugar City” for its sweet cane production. His hometown was reported by two Venezuelan news outlets and confirmed on Tuesday by Fabiana Meléndez Ruiz, a spokesperson working with the Venezuelan man’s family.

Flor Pérez described her son as a hard worker and a calm, friendly and kind person. She said in an interview that he was the sole provider for herself and his son, who lives with her in Venezuela.

“He’s never had problems before, not even in high school, they never complained about him,” she said in Spanish. “Everyone loves him.”

After attending a local high school, Garces Perez studied banking and finance at a technical and engineering school, the Instituto Universitario de Tecnología de Yaracu, Meléndez Ruiz confirmed. He entered the United States legally in 2024 seeking asylum and obtained a work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

“He emigrated to the US because he wanted to give me a better life,” Pérez said. “He wanted to go there to see if he could find better opportunities to be able to take care of us and achieve his dreams.”

Because of a change of address, he missed a hearing notice in his immigration proceedings, and the federal government ordered him deported in a final order of removal. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez has no criminal record.

[…]

On Sunday morning, Garces Perez’s wife, Elizdar, asked her husband to stay home and spend the day with her. But he left to pick up some DoorDash orders, driving through North Austin to deliver meals, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. Elizdar declined to speak to the media.

Around 12:40 p.m. Austin time, Garces Perez’s mother received a video call from her son.

He said “Mom, immigration is following me. They shot me,” Pérez told a Venezuelan digital news outlet in an interview conducted in Spanish. He was screaming loudly and quickly hung up to call his wife, she said.

He then called Elizdar. When the call was disconnected suddenly, she drove to the highway underpass where he had been. There, she found his sedan with the passenger side crushed.

Garces Perez said a masked ICE agent in a black SUV drove aggressively next to his blue sedan. The agent did not turn on sirens or lights until after the car hit his passenger side as he was trying to make a U-turn and park, Garces Perez told the media on Monday. He gave his account of what happened over the phone from where he is currently being detained in Pearsall.

When stopped in the 8000 block of Anderson Lane, the agent shot through the passenger window, striking Garces Perez in the back, below his neck.

[…]

At 10 a.m. on Monday, Elizdar and Lincoln-Goldfinch discovered Garces Perez was being held in federal custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, roughly 135 miles southwest of Austin.

Garces Perez spoke by phone to reporters on Monday afternoon, saying that he had not received pain medication while detained. He said he is in a lot of pain because of the bullet lodged in his back, which doctors said they could not remove because it was too close to his spine.

He also said he did not receive proper wound dressing. Dell Seton representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Pérez said she believes her son eventually wants to move back to Venezuela to be with his family, who relies on him for support. Pérez had a knee surgery three weeks ago, but without her son’s income, she cannot begin therapy.

She said she is grateful for the support her son has received and asked the community to keep supporting immigrants.

I hope those investigations of what happened include some pointed questions for the hospital as well. And I hope that whatever Wilber Rafael Garces Perez ultimately decides to do, he gets to do it on his own terms. Texas Public Radio, the Trib, the Current, NBC News, the NYT, and more broadly Daily Kos have more.