{"id":443382,"date":"2026-09-21T22:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443382\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T22:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:22:14","slug":"texas-lawmaker-demands-full-investigation-after-ice-agent-shoots-austin-delivery-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443382\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Lawmaker Demands Full Investigation After ICE Agent Shoots Austin Delivery Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Texas<\/a>Texas Rep. Ram\u00f3n Romero Jr., chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Courtesy image. Bgd for illustration purposes<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014\u00a0Texas Rep. Ram\u00f3n Romero Jr., chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, called for a full investigation into the shooting of a 28-year-old Venezuelan man by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin and urged Gov. Greg Abbott to press federal authorities for cooperation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Public Domain<\/p>\n

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez\u00a0was shot Sunday during an immigration enforcement operation in North Austin. Austin officials said he suffered a single gunshot wound to the upper torso and was hospitalized in serious but stable condition. He was later released into federal custody, according to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother man has been shot during an ICE operation in Texas,\u201d Romero said. He said Garces Perez, according to his attorney, had a valid work permit and was making a DoorDash delivery when he was shot.<\/p>\n

Lincoln-Goldfinch\u00a0has said Garces Perez entered the United States legally and had a work permit. The Department of Homeland Security has provided a different account, saying he entered illegally and has a final removal order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, immigration attorney representing Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Courtesy photo<\/p>\n

Romero cited two previous Texas cases involving ICE officers, Ruben Ray Martinez and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, before calling on Abbott to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Abbott, how many more Texans have to be hurt before you step in?\u201d Romero said. \u201cWilber\u2019s family deserves answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romero called on Abbott to demand \u201ca full, transparent investigation\u201d and federal cooperation with state and local investigators. He also urged the governor to demand an end to ICE traffic stops.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Governor Abbott<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow this to become the new normal in Texas,\u201d Romero said.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune reported that the Austin shooting followed the fatal shootings of Salgado Araujo in Houston in July and Martinez in South Padre Island in March 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Austin shooting has already prompted investigations and calls for greater transparency.\u00a0Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis\u00a0said Austin police and the Texas Rangers plan to investigate alongside federal authorities. Homeland Security Investigations is leading the federal investigation with FBI assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson\u00a0has also called for local participation, saying an investigation involving outside law enforcement would provide greater credibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. Courtesy photo<\/p>\n

The shooting adds to questions raised previously by Abbott about the use of deadly force during immigration enforcement. Texas Border Business previously reported Abbott\u2019s message following another ICE-related shooting: \u201cEnforce the law, but don\u2019t kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garces Perez survived Sunday\u2019s shooting, but Romero said the incident requires scrutiny of how immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Texas.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities have not publicly released a complete account of what happened immediately before the officer fired.<\/p>\n

See related stories:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rep. Ram\u00f3n Romero Jr., chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Courtesy image. Bgd for illustration purposes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1223,1829,1830,153178,81353,28],"class_list":["post-443382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-texas","tag-ice","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-ramonromerojr","tag-texas-border-business","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}