Austin, Texas - A Venezuelan national was rushed to a hospital in Austin, Texas, on Sunday after he was shot by a federal immigration agent, local officials said, voicing outrage and demanding an investigation into what happened.
The man was in stable but serious condition with one gunshot wound to the torso suffered during a foot pursuit, the officials said, stressing that information on what occurred was "very preliminary."
"I am very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE," Mayor Kirk Watson said on X.
A lawyer for the wounded man identified him as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez of Venezuela.
The lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said on X that Garces Perez was shot "by ICE in Austin during a DoorDash delivery this afternoon."
The shooting took place amid a "significant increase, almost overnight" of ICE operations in the Texas capital, Mayor Watson told a press conference.
ICE has not released information about the incident, and Watson said local law enforcement should be involved in elements of the investigation.
"I will say, frankly, from my perspective, the credibility of ICE doing some form of investigation just by itself and excluding others would not be appropriate," Watson said.
Congressman Greg Casar echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that "ICE has not been truthful in shootings in other cities."
Casar cited the January shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis in which video footage belied ICE accounts that she had attempted to run over a federal agent.
"It is awful that this horror has come to our doorstep," Casar said. "A few weeks ago as we saw the ICE surge come... I and others said that ICE needed to leave before someone was shot."
The House Democrat called for the release of body camera footage of Sunday's incident.
ICE urged not to deport Garces Perez
A few hours later, Casar said Garces Perez has been "taken out of the hospital and into ICE custody."
"If ICE deports him, the key witness to their shooting disappears," the lawmaker added. "He must not be removed from this country, and he must receive proper medical care."
Lincoln-Goldfinch, the lawyer, also said her client was placed "into custody, but we still don't know his location."
Video posted by local news outlets to social media shows several dozen people protesting at the site of the alleged shooting.
In 2016 and again in 2024, Donald Trump campaigned for president on a promise to expel millions of migrants, and has taken a series of actions since returning to the White House aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.
Nearly 51,000 undocumented migrants were arrested in the US in August, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.
Tasked with enforcing Trump's immigration crackdown, ICE's heavily armed and often masked agents have faced nationwide backlash for aggressive and often violent tactics, including several fatal shootings.
They include Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old shot by ICE in March 2025, in what the Texas Tribune said was the first known killing by immigration agents of an American in Trump's second term.