\n More than a day later, the man \u2013 whose lawyer identified him as a Venezuelan immigrant \u2013 said he had not been treated properly for the gunshot wound or received pain medication.\n <\/p>\n
\n Federal authorities have not said what led up to the shooting in North Austin, which is at least the third involving immigration agents in Texas since the start of Trump\u2019s second term, with criticism of heavy-handed tactics on the rise and polls<\/a> showing most Americans against the president\u2019s immigration policies.\n <\/p>\n \n Two months ago, ICE agents fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop in Houston<\/a>. Two teens \u2013 US citizens \u2013 said they were attacked earlier this month by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after they recorded an immigration stop, with video showing one being repeatedly punched in the head<\/a> while pinned to the pavement. Last month, ICE officer Christian Castro was charged<\/a> with lying about his shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota and is currently free on bond after pleading not guilty.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is a pattern \u2013 it\u2019s a disturbing pattern \u2013 and it\u2019s got to stop,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat who represents part of Austin.\n <\/p>\n \n The man shot Sunday was identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, by Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said she is representing his family.\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez was shot in the torso just before 1 p.m. Sunday, officials said. He was released from the hospital later in the day and detained in an infirmary at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, more than 100 miles away from Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN on Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey sent him to (an ICE facility) with a bullet in his back without pain medication, and he slept overnight in a processing center without a bed,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Speaking through a translator on the phone during a Monday afternoon news conference, Garces Perez said, \u201cI am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require.\u201d He said doctors did not remove the bullet because it was close to his spine.\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez has lost movement on the \u201centire left side of his body,\u201d meaning he is \u201cfacing paralysis,\u201d Lincoln-Goldfinch later told CNN\u2019s \u201cErin Burnett OutFront.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Later Monday, Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a video on social media<\/a> that she was told by a fellow inmate that Garces Perez had been taken to a hospital. She told CNN she didn\u2019t have an update on his condition.\n <\/p>\n \n The reported transfer came after a representative of Rep. Joaquin Castro\u2019s office visited the Pearsall facility and said<\/a> ICE were going to take Garces Perez back to the hospital, noting he was in \u201ctremendous pain.\u201d Castro, a Texas Democrat who represents part of San Antonio, has been vocal about immigrants detained across the state\u2019s detention centers.\n <\/p>\n \n Lincoln-Goldfinch said earlier she had to use \u201cback channels\u201d to determine where Garces Perez was being held. The Department of Homeland Security said Garces Perez had a final order for removal, and ICE recently removed the location of such detainees from an online database, complicating their attorneys\u2019 efforts to prevent their deportation, The Associated Press reported Monday<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n So far, the Department of Homeland Security has not given a detailed account of what happened or responded to CNN\u2019s request for comment on the circumstances of the incident.\n <\/p>\n \n ICE officers were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations Sunday based on license plate checks when they came across a vehicle registered to Garces Perez, according to a source familiar with the incident.\n <\/p>\n \n Officers conducted a vehicle stop and questioned Garces Perez, who had a brief exchange with the officers before he fled the scene in his car, the source said. It is unclear whether Garces Perez\u2019s car came to a complete stop or was moving during the initial exchange. The shooting happened later.\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez said through the translator the SUV tried to hit him, which he originally interpreted as an aggressive driver. When he realized ICE agents were in the vehicle, Garces Perez said he asked to pull over to be detained but the federal official denied his request.\n <\/p>\n \n When he attempted a U-turn to park the car, the SUV ran into his car and he was then shot, Garces Perez said, according to the translator.\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez said after he was shot, an officer went into his car and \u201cforcibly turned it off.\u201d He told the officer he was in pain and felt like he was going to pass out shortly before emergency medical services arrived.\n <\/p>\n \n The shooting was captured on video by Heidi Clark, who was livestreaming to Facebook while driving down Research Boulevard. As she neared the intersection with Anderson Square, her monologue was interrupted by loud tire screeches.\n <\/p>\n Woman captures moment gunshots ring out during ICE-involved shooting\n <\/p>\n Woman captures moment gunshots ring out during ICE-involved shooting<\/p>\n 1:26<\/p>\n \n \u201cWoah!\u201d Clark said as she turned her phone camera toward the scene and a person could be seen in the distance running out of an SUV toward a blue sedan. Her surprise quickly turned to shock as gunfire broke out.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOh my God!\u201d said Clark. \u201cHoly f**kin\u2019 sh*t, dude!\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez is later seen sitting on the ground in video obtained by ABC News<\/a>, hands cuffed behind him, his shirt cut open to reveal what appears to be a gaping gunshot wound in his back.\n <\/p>\n Immediate aftermath of Austin ICE shooting\n <\/p>\n Immediate aftermath of Austin ICE shooting<\/p>\n 0:35<\/p>\n \n Garces Perez is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had a final order for removal, DHS said in a post on X<\/a>. He was stable and \u201cin federal custody pending removal,\u201d the agency said.\n <\/p>\n \n Homeland Security Investigations, DHS\u2019 investigative branch, will lead the investigation with assistance from the FBI, the post said without providing further details.\n <\/p>\n \n However, Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez legally entered the country through CBP One, a Biden-era program, to seek asylum. He was allowed into the country and issued a work permit while he went through immigration proceedings. The Trump administration has since ended the program.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe had a pending court date, and the immigration court changed his court date without notifying him,\u201d resulting in her client receiving a removal order in absentia, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.\n <\/p>\n \n Garces Perez was fleeing the pursuit Sunday because all he knew was an unmarked \u201cbig black truck\u201d had rammed his vehicle twice, she said. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters Sunday there may have been a foot chase with the ICE agent but cautioned the information was preliminary and she had not yet been briefed by federal partners.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere was not a foot chase as they said that there was,\u201d Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even know he was dealing with ICE until he was shot.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Video of the aftermath showed a blue Toyota Corolla with damage to the front passenger door and at least two apparent bullet holes in the right rear window, according to footage shared by CNN affiliate KVUE<\/a> and several witness videos taken at the scene.\n <\/p>\n \n The Travis County District Attorney\u2019s office has requested an independent investigation of the shooting, saying in a statement<\/a> Sunday the DA\u2019s office and the Austin Police Department should be \u201cco-equal partners in the investigation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Austin\u2019s Democratic Mayor Kirk Watson also said an investigation would take place involving the Texas Rangers and Austin police.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhile I\u2019m unhappy and I\u2019m angry about it, I\u2019m not surprised at all,\u201d Watson said. \u201cIt\u2019s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI see ICE following their same PR pattern in this case,\u201d Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN on Monday. \u201cThere is no evidence to be seen that Wilber was doing anything but driving his car down the road.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has reached out to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n The Trump administration has surged immigration agents to several Democrat-run American cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. Federal officers have fatally shot at least four people, including two American citizens, during operations across the country.\n <\/p>\n As ICE arrests surge, the Trump administration continues to offer free flights and thousands of dollars to migrants who chose to voluntarily return to their country \u2013 they call it self-deportation. But the decision to leave \u2013 and the logistics that come with it \u2013 is anything but straightforward. CNN recently traveled with one family as they prepared to head back to Venezuela, leaving their life in the US behind. <\/p>\n For more: She wants to self-deport. But this pregnant mom is stuck in a strange subplot of Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement crackdown <\/p>\n — <\/p>\n Guest: Maeva Bambuck, CNN Cross-Platform Producer <\/p>\n Host: David Rind <\/p>\n Producer: Paola Ortiz <\/p>\n Showrunner: Felicia Patinkin<\/p>\n Sep 20, 2026 \u2022 30 min<\/p>\n …<\/p>\n \n Negative reaction to ICE actions from Latino communities has resulted in a noticeable drop in support for the enforcement policies in the demographic group that was key to President Trump\u2019s 2024 election victory.\n <\/p>\n \n About seven in 10 Latinos said the administration was doing too much to deport immigrants, according to a July poll<\/a> by the Pew Research Center, with a third of Hispanic voters who cast a ballot for Trump in 2024 now saying the administration\u2019s policies have been harmful to Hispanics.\n <\/p>\n \n The political reality as midterms approach was demonstrated starkly last week when Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar \u2013 a Florida Republican and strong supporter of President Trump generally \u2013 released a campaign ad<\/a> addressing Trump directly.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,\u201d she said. Salazar represents a district<\/a> that favored Trump by 15 percentage points in the last presidential election.\n <\/p>\n \n For decades, Democrats in Texas have struggled to get Hispanic voters to turn up at the polls and for those who do, the trend over the past 10 years has been shifting away from the party<\/a>, according to a voting analysis published in 2024.\n <\/p>\n \n Though a majority of Hispanic voters still vote blue, 40% voted Republican in the state\u2019s gubernatorial race in 2022, and the party won by as much as 17 points in House races considered competitive by UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights organization. In 2024, Trump managed to flip four counties in the Rio Grande Valley that had long voted Democrat and all have Hispanic populations of over 80%.\n <\/p>\n \n While Texas is a Republican-led state, its capital city, Austin, leans heavily blue.\n <\/p>\n \n Representatives from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Latino civil rights organization founded in Texas; the NAACP; county commissioners; members of Congress and others held a news conference in Austin on Monday afternoon.\n <\/p>\n \n Speakers lined up in support of Garces Perez and called for accountability for ICE.\n <\/p>\n \n US Rep. Lloyd Doggett told Austin residents to continue speaking out and \u201ccarry the protest to the polls.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He also encouraged people to protest using both the Mexican and American flags.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI want to see this protest and our demand for action wrapped in the American flag, because what could be more un-American than a secret police force that is out preying on residents of our communities?\u201d Doggett said. \u201cWe need to reject that, and we need to reject the un-Americanism that is reflected in these terrible policies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n On-duty ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents during the second Trump administration have shot at least 20 people, eight fatally, prior to Sunday, according to a CNN analysis.\n <\/p>\n \n Casar told reporters the city has seen an ICE surge come to the capital, particularly in north-central Austin, where Sunday\u2019s shooting occurred.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cICE needs to get out of our city and start telling people the truth,\u201d Casar said. \u201cWe need the facts in this case to really understand what fully happened, but what we are seeing from ICE in Texas and across the country is unacceptable.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Casar noted the fatal shootings of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis, in which DHS officials originally depicted the anti-ICE protesters as \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d despite videos appearing to show them moving away from agents who opened fire.\n <\/p>\n![\"Wilber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/wilber-rafael-garces-perez-final.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"image001.png\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image001-20260920233020711.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"image001.png\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image001-20260920233020711.png&q=w_860,c_fill\")
<\/p>\n![\"clipped](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/96867475-39781617-generated-thumbnail.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"clipped](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/96867475-39781617-generated-thumbnail.jpg&q=w_860,c_fill\")
<\/p>\n![\"CNN](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/square.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n CNN 5 Things
\n <\/a>
\n Inside the Struggle to \u2018Self-Deport\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ap26263820002105.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"still_23001515_1834.3590000000002_still.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/still-23001515-1834-3590000000002-still.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"still_23001515_1834.3590000000002_still.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/still-23001515-1834-3590000000002-still.jpg&q=w_860,c_fill\")
<\/p>\n![\"\u201cWe\u2019re](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/screenshot-2026-09-20-at-7-49-59-pm.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\u201cWe\u2019re](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/screenshot-2026-09-20-at-7-49-59-pm.png&q=w_860,c_fill\")
<\/p>\n