Protesters gathered in Austin on Sunday after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and wounded a man in the Texas capital. Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash delivery driver, was shot in the torso and later transferred from hospital to a detention centre with a bullet still in his back, his lawyer told US media. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to the BBC it was investigating the shooting of a man in Austin who had entered the country illegally. It is unclear what led to the shooting with the local mayor and police demanding an investigation.
It comes months after a man in Houston was shot dead by an ICE officer. What is ICE and what powers do its agents have to use force? Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told CBS that Garcés Perez called his wife while “yelling in pain” in hospital. She told National Public Radio he was in ICE custody.
The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement efforts and arrests during Trump’s second term, sparking unrest across several US cities. The administration has defended its policies and the agency’s controversial tactics as necessary for public safety and to enact Trump’s campaign promise to secure the border and carry out mass deportations. The shooting in Austin on Sunday occurred just before 1300 local time, although details remain scarce. Dozens of protesters, some waving the flags of Mexico and Guatemala, gathered at the scene carrying signs demanding that ICE leave Austin.
Local television outlets showed the demonstrators gathering across the street from a blue Toyota Corolla that sustained damage to the passenger-side door, as ICE agents stood nearby, Reuters news agency reported. Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said that Austinites have a right to know what happened and “a right to feel safe in their city” during a media briefing on Sunday. “They should know the truth,” he said, adding that he is pleased that the city will also be involved in the investigation. He added that ICE operations have surged in Austin in recent weeks.
ICE has faced intense scrutiny after a number of deadly shootings, including the death of Houston resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Salgado Araujo had not been a target of an ICE investigation, but was shot during an ICE traffic stop, according to DHS. Texas Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat, has demanded a full and immediate independent investigation into the latest shooting and the release of body camera footage. He also demanded “accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law”.
Activists say that the administration has violated due process as it carries out the crackdown. Democrats have demanded reforms at the agency, including requiring immigration enforcement agents to wear body cameras and not conceal their faces. Earlier this month the US Department of Justice charged an ICE agent with lying about the non-fatal shooting of a Venezuelan migrant in Minnesota – a rare instance in which the current justice department accused a federal agent of breaking the law on the job. Earlier this week, Florida lawmaker Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican who has spoken out against the immigration crackdown, released an advert criticising the targeting and detaining of individuals who have no criminal record.
Salazar appeared on the CBS programme Face the Nation on Sunday and said that she has since spoken to the president, and believes he will keep the country on the right track. “He gets it more than anybody,” she said. Immigrants held in small outdoor cages at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida, investigators find ICE agent charged with lying about shooting Venezuelan man during crackdown
