Austin, Texas - A Venezuelan national shot and wounded by an immigration agent in Texas was jailed with the bullet still inside his body, his lawyer said Monday.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez (28) is in stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to his torso, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The shooting in Austin, Texas, on Sunday marked the latest instance of violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tasked with enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Garces Perez's attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, told a press conference that her client was transferred from a hospital to a detention center in Pearsall, some 135 miles southwest of Austin.
"He was shot here in his back, and they didn't take the bullet out, and they didn't give him pain medication, and they transferred him to ICE, to a processing center where he spent the night without a bed," Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
She said Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when an unmarked black truck sideswiped him.
"He didn't know it was ICE and he did a U-turn," she said. "The truck chased him, and sideswiped him again, and the agents came out and shot him in the back of the neck and pulled him out of the car."
"There is absolutely zero justification for having shot him," she said. "This is why we're calling for a stop to ICE traffic stops. ICE officers are over armed, overpaid, undertrained, and violent."
DHS said on X that Garces Perez had "illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal."
But Lincoln-Goldfinch maintained he was in the US "legally with a work permit."
A makeshift shrine with flowers, candles, and a sign reading "Justice 4 Wilber" was placed near the site where the shooting occurred.