Venezuelan man shot by ICE agent in Texas charged with assaulting officer

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged 28-year-old Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez with assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, following a shooting on 20 September in Austin, Texas. According to his attorney, Garcés Pérez still has a bullet lodged in his back from the incident. He made his first court appearance in Austin on Tuesday.

According to an affidavit from a Department of Homeland Security agent, officers spotted Garcés Pérez's car parked outside a restaurant with its hazard lights on and decided to stop him after a database check showed he had a final removal order. Garcés Pérez, who was making a DoorDash delivery, handed his driver's license through a partly open window but refused to step out, saying he wanted to wait for his wife to come collect his car. About a minute later he abruptly closed the window and tried to drive off. During this attempt, one officer was allegedly struck by the car's side mirror, prompting another officer to open fire.

Garcés Pérez has given a different account, telling investigators that a law enforcement vehicle struck his car and caused it to spin before he was shot in the back. The officer who fired was not wearing a body camera, and another officer's camera only captured the scene after the shooting had already occurred. The affidavit includes photos from previously unreleased body-camera footage of the earlier interaction between the officer and the car.

Garcés Pérez entered the US in 2024 through the CBP One program, which allowed migrants to schedule asylum appointments before President Trump ended it on his first day back in office. His lawyer says he held a valid work permit and had applied for asylum, and that his removal order was issued after he missed a hearing notice sent to an old address. His legal team has separately filed a lawsuit seeking to block his deportation.

If convicted, Garcés Pérez faces up to 20 years in prison. The case comes amid a broader surge in immigration enforcement, with ICE recording more than 50,000 arrests in each of July and August for the first time. At least ten shootings by immigration officers have been fatal since Trump returned to office, and in several prior cases assault charges against people shot by agents were later dropped.