[UPDATE] Man shot once in the back by an ICE officer in Austin is held at a detention center with the bullet still in him, his lawyer says

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was discharged from the hospital into ICE custody and driven about 130 miles to the Pearsall detention center, where DHS is investigating its own officer.

The shooting. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man who has lived in the U.S. for two years, was shot once in the back during an ICE traffic stop in north Austin shortly before 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20, while making a DoorDash delivery. Emergency services were called at 12:56 p.m. Video posted online appears to show an ICE officer get out of his car and fire at Garcés Pérez's car three times. Officials described the wound as being to the torso; his lawyer says the round went in between his shoulder blades. Where he is. He was released from the hospital into ICE custody and taken to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, roughly 130 miles southwest of Austin. DHS says he was in the country illegally under a final order of removal. His attorney's spokesperson says he entered through a parole program, is seeking asylum and has no criminal record. (TS: DHS hasn't answered the Guardian on the stop itself, his condition, or where he's held.) "Bullet still lodged in his back. No pain meds." — attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who says he is being questioned at Pearsall Where it stands. Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE's own department, is leading the inquiry with FBI help; Austin police were not part of the operation. Texas officers fired pepper balls at people who gathered at the scene and detained several of them. Rep. Greg Casar (Rep-D Texas) has asked DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE director David Venturella for a briefing and all body and dash camera footage by Sept. 28.

PREVIOUSLY

Sept. 2 — ICE said every field agent would have a body camera by Sept. 30; about 3,000 of 13,000 agents had one as of February.
Sept. 7 — ICE logged more than 50,000 arrests for a second straight month, a first, with a rising share of people who have no criminal record.
Sept. 11 — Latino and voting-rights groups and the city of Denver filed two suits to bar ICE from polling places.
Sept. 18 — The White House pulled Lance Schroyer's nomination to run ICE after Senate Republicans blocked him, leaving the agency under an acting director.
Sept. 20 — An ICE officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop in north Austin; state police fired pepper balls at protesters who gathered at the scene and detained several.

What ICE's own force, care and footage rules allow:

Directive 19009.3 bars deadly force used only to stop someone running away, and requires a verbal warning when feasible.
Detention standard 4.3 guarantees "medically necessary and appropriate" care, but names pain relief only for emergency dental work, and off-site surgery needs a payment authorization filed with ICE Health Service Corps first.
The ICE director can delay footage release indefinitely under "specific and compelling circumstances," a phrase the policy never defines.

ContextICE officers shot 59 people between 2015 and 2021, killing 23. None of those shootings produced an indictment, according to records obtained by The Trace. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year. ICE reported more than 50,000 arrests in each of July and August 2026 — the first months the agency has ever recorded that many. Travis County District Attorney José Pompa Garza's office says the Austin shooting may have broken state law and has asked to work the case with city police. State charges are possible. But a federal officer can move the case to federal court under a law that lets federal employees be tried there for acts done on duty. That is the route that ended Idaho's manslaughter case against FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi over the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege before trial, on the grounds that a state cannot prosecute federal agents for doing their jobs. Minnesota charged ICE officer Christian Castro this month — for lying, not for shooting.

Minnesota arrested an ICE officer on state assault charges after Texas refused to extradite him

Castro turned himself in Sept. 16 after Gov. Greg Abbott (Gov-R Texas) declined Hennepin County's warrant. He faces four counts of second-degree assault and one of falsely reporting a crime in the non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. A separate federal case charges him with six counts of lying to the FBI.

SEMI-RELATED

[DHS inspector general is examining whether ICE policies contributed to deaths in detention](https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/projects/memos/2026-06/Detainee%20Deaths%20in%20U.S.%20Immigration%20and%20Customs%20Enforcement%20(ICE)%20Custody,%20FY%202022%20through%20the%20Second%20Quarter%20of%20FY%202026.pdf)

The June 24, 2026 memo says in-custody deaths have risen every year since fiscal 2022. ICE reported 33 in 2025 against 11 in 2024, and had counted 24 by Sept. 2 this year. Fieldwork began in July and covers October 2021 through March 2026.