Venezuelan man shot by ICE officer held in Texas with bullet still in back

A Venezuelan man who was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin, Texas, remained in ICE custody on Monday with a bullet still lodged in his back, according to a spokesperson for his attorney.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in the Texas capital on Sunday when he was shot during a traffic stop, said Fabiana Meléndez Ruiz, a spokesperson for immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.

Ruiz said Perez called his wife around 12:30 p.m. Sunday to tell her he had been shot. His wife has not spoken with him since, she said.

Perez is being held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, roughly 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, Ruiz said. She said Lincoln-Goldfinch spoke by phone with Perez, who told her he was being interrogated while the bullet remained in his back and that he had no pain medication.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the country illegally who "had a final order of removal."

Ruiz said Perez is an asylum seeker who entered the United States through a parole program and has no criminal history. "Regardless of his status, the use of force was unwarranted," she said. "As far as we understand, he was here legally."

The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the United States during President Donald Trump's second term. During the summer, the agency reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August — a first for ICE.

Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters Sunday that the shooting followed a traffic stop and that local police were not involved. Local officials said the man was shot once in the torso and had been hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Ruiz said Perez's wife and attorney were unable to get information on his condition from the hospital Sunday until hospital attorneys told them around 6 p.m. that he had been discharged 90 minutes earlier. She said ICE had not confirmed any information to Lincoln-Goldfinch, who used legal databases and other means to find where he was being detained.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said Sunday he wants local police to have a role in investigating the shooting, arguing it would not be appropriate for ICE to investigate on its own.

At the scene, a dark blue Toyota Corolla was parked under an overpass with damage to its passenger-side door and what appeared to be bullet holes before it was towed away Sunday evening. About 100 anti-ICE protesters gathered Sunday in the shooting's aftermath.