Venezuelan Man Shot By ICE Says He’s Not Receiving Proper Medical Treatment 

On Monday, we reported on the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan immigrant who was shot in the back by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Austin, Texas, prompting immediate protests in the area because people are tired of the Trump administration’s out-of-control foot soldiers being the terrorists the administration claims the migrants they’re arresting are. Perez is reportedly in the hospital currently, but he says he has not been getting the care he needs due to ICE’s interference.

According to the New York Times, Perez, 28, spoke in Spanish on a speakerphone at a news conference on Monday, when he said he only felt one gunshot enter his body when a federal immigration officer shot him on Sunday afternoon, and that the bullet, which was lodged near his spine, had not been removed at the hospital because, according to a doctor, ICE agents were in a hurry to transport him, presumably, to a detention center.

“I am not doing well because of the gunshot wound I received,” he said. “I have not received the necessary medical attention.”

An official who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation said the encounter between ICE and Perez began when agents checked license plates and discovered Perez had a deportation order on file. 

According to his immigration lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Perez said he came to the U.S. through a government program for asylum seekers, then got a work permit, which would dispute the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that he’s an “illegal alien” who “illegally entered our country under the Biden administration.” 

DHS also noted that Perez ” had a final order of removal,” which he doesn’t appear to dispute, but he says he was unaware of it. Perez reportedly told his lawyer he changed his address in immigration court and a hearing notice was sent to his former home. The order for removal came after he missed his court date, which he said happened because he didn’t know about it.

The official who spoke with the Times said Perez was not the target of a federal investigation before the encounter, which, incidentally, is the same thing DHS said about Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot by a federal agent in July in Houston after he fled a traffic stop, prompting agents to shoot because, according to them, he tried to weaponize his vehicle against the agents, a claim that the other occupants in his car dispute, as does video footage of the stop.

In fact, if it’s true that Perez was not a target of ICE, that wouldn’t be where the similarities between his case and that of Salgado Araujo’s end.

From the Times:

The agents pulled Mr. Garces Perez over at about 12:45 p.m. on Sunday while he was making DoorDash deliveries. They told him that they were ICE agents and that he was going to be arrested. Mr. Garces Perez fled in his car after that, the two people familiar with the shooting said.

A short chase ensued before ICE agents encountered Mr. Garces Perez again, they said. The shooting occurred after that. Mr. Garces Perez was shot in the back and taken to a hospital and later released into ICE custody.

During the press conference, Perez recalled that while he was on his way to make a delivery, an SUV tried to sideswipe his car, which he assumed was aggressive road rage, but the SUV then hit his car and turned on its police lights. From there, a man who identified himself as an ICE agent asked him for his immigration documents, then told him to get out of the car. Perez said that he asked the officer why he was being stopped, but the officer responded by ordering him out of the vehicle again. Perez said he told the agent he would exit the vehicle, but asked if he could pull over to the side of the road so that someone could pick it up later. He said the officer told him no, but he looped his vehicle around anyway so he could park in a secure spot, and that’s when the ICE vehicle collided with his again, and an officer opened fire on him.

“I couldn’t move,” he said. “I was practically dizzy.”

Again, the shooting immediately resulted in large protests in the area, prompting Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis to release a video message, acknowledging the “concern and uncertainty” the shooting has caused, and assuring the public that her department is conducting an impartial investigation into the incident.

“People will have strong feelings about what happened,” Davis said. “People will have questions — and they should — but in determining what happened in this particular incident, we have to allow evidence, and not rumor, speculation or incomplete information, guide us.”

Of course, the problem with Davis’s plea to the public for patience — besides the fact that it’s a generic plea that law enforcement always makes when a cop shoots an unarmed civilian in what appears to be a clear case of police brutality — is that, according to DHS, the investigation into the shooting is being led by the FBI and DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. So, Davis may be promising a thorough investigation that her department isn’t even in charge of. 

And since the start of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and mass deportation agenda, DHS has made a clear habit of dehumanizing the victims in cases like this and making them out to be domestic terrorists when all evidence shows the opposite is true, which is exactly what has happened in regard to the shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was shot by agents who claimed he and others attacked them, which was proven to be false. In the cases of Good and Pretti, like Salgado Araujo, they didn’t live to tell their side of the story.

There’s simply no reason for anyone to believe this government will do the right thing by Perez or any other victims of ICE’s rampant violence. It’s shameful.

SEE ALSO:

Protest Erupts In Austin After ICE Agent Shoots Venezuelan Man In Back

ICE Agents Violently Attack Teens On Their Way To Enlist As Marines