The Venezuelan man shot by federal immigration officers after a traffic stop in Texas needs surgery to avoid losing feeling on the left side of his body, according to his supporters.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, has spent the past five days in detention with a bullet lodged in his back, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rapidly removed him from a hospital in Austin where he had been taken on Sunday after the shooting.
Dispute over care and events
In the days since, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, and Garcés Pérez’s supporters have sparred over the details of events surrounding the shooting and about the quality of medical care Garcés Pérez has received while in federal immigration detention.
The Democratic congressman Greg Casar, who visited Garcés Pérez on Wednesday, told reporters that he found him in a wheelchair with a sling on his left arm. Casar said Pérez only recently had been given stronger painkillers, and the injured man said he had been told by a medical specialist that he required surgery to remove the bullet stuck between his shoulder blades.
“Surgery, of course, we all know, has its benefits and risks. But if Wilber and his wife decide that he needs to go through a surgery, then ICE needs to expedite his care,” Casar said. “I am making it very clear to every part of the federal government that ICE needs to take the medical care of Wilber Garcés Pérez extremely seriously.”
DHS responded to Casar’s comments on X, saying it provides all its detainees comprehensive medical care that is “the best healthcare [many] have received their entire lives”.
Removal from hospital and investigation
In a statement, the agency also disputed Garcés Pérez’s earlier claim that he had slept on the floor on his first night of detention. He was removed from a hospital in Austin by federal officers on the afternoon of the shooting and taken to a detention center about 140 miles away, to the west of San Antonio.
DHS did not respond to questions from the Guardian regarding Garcés Pérez’s medical treatment and the investigation into the shooting that is underway.
A timeline for any surgery is still unknown, Garcés Pérez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said on Friday.
Public reaction and legal proceedings
The developments and disagreements this week have kept attention on the shooting in Austin, which rattled many in the Texas capital and state’s most liberal big city. ICE has attracted heavy criticism from some city leaders, including the mayor, Kirk Watson. Democratic politicians and migrant rights organizations have stepped up calls since the shooting for ICE to stop conducting traffic stops and random questioning of immigrants.
Middle school and high school students at schools across the Austin area, including at predominantly Hispanic schools, walked out throughout the week, waving signs and flags from Latin American countries.
DHS was not moved only to reiterate its position. “ICE will not be slowing down nor leaving Austin,” DHS said.
A federal judge ordered that Garcés Pérez be present at a court hearing next week, where a judge is expected to begin considering a habeas corpus petition seeking his release. The local attorney general has filed a letter asking for Garcés Pérez be kept in the United States during the investigation because of his importance as a witness in his own shooting. Garcés Pérez is the subject of a court order to remove him from the US but, meanwhile, his legal team has applied for a visa on the claim that he has been the victim of violent crime by ICE.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said she lost contact with her client for more than two days following a dramatic moment where he was able to get on a call with her during a press conference she was holding on Monday. He described the pain from his injuries and offered his account of events. Garcés Pérez has been kept in isolation since, she said.
Conflicting accounts and concerns
Meanwhile, new evidence offered by local law enforcement has called into question parts of Garcés Pérez’s account. Austin police had arrived on the scene shortly after an unnamed ICE officer had shot Garcés Pérez and he was in his car clutching his chest as federal personnel looked on, saying they had called an ambulance. Two Austin officers took a medical kit from their vehicle and were the ones to render first aid, cutting off the man’s shirt to reveal the bullet wound.
Garcés Pérez, who was making a DoorDash delivery at the time he was shot, said he did not initially realize ICE was trying to stop him, and that he had driven away from federal immigration agents after an initial encounter, to move his car to a safer spot, before an ICE vehicle hit him. Bystander video showed the aftermath.
Video later released by Austin police appears to show that Garcés Pérez stopped down the block from the site of the shooting about 10 minutes before it occurred. He is pulled over on a lane of moving traffic, blocked on either side by black SUVs and conversing with two federal immigration officers standing outside of his car. Austin police chief Lisa Davis said a pursuit “going through side neighborhoods” followed. Bystander video shows that an ICE SUV crashed into Garcés Pérez. A federal officer got out of the vehicle and shot him.
Asked about the inconsistencies, Lincoln-Goldfinch told the Guardian: “Asking my client who is gravely injured, who is on communication lockdown, in a jail cell, to explain what happened is unfair.”
She declined to say whether she regretted putting her client in front of the media on Monday.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said she was also concerned about transparency because ICE has not provided her with their footage of the incident, and because of reports that the officer who shot Garcés Pérez was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.
DHS has said it is leading the investigation into the shooting, alongside the FBI. The local district attorney and Austin police have launched their own.
