are expected to participate in the forum<\/a>, hosted by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Greg Casar, who represents the Austin area.<\/p>\nWATCH LIVE: <\/p>\n
The hearing, titled \u201cSeeking Justice in Austin: Oversight of ICE\u2019s Use of Force in the Shooting of Wilber Garc\u00e9s-P\u00e9rez and Across Texas,\u201d is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers plan to hear from representatives for Garc\u00e9s-P\u00e9rez, local officials, community advocates and others about the impact of federal immigration enforcement operations on Texas communities.<\/p>\n
What happened in the Austin ICE shooting?<\/p>\n
Garc\u00e9s-P\u00e9rez was shot by an ICE officer on Sept. 20 in North Austin. His attorney identified him as a 28-year-old Venezuelan man who was making a DoorDash delivery when the encounter occurred.<\/p>\n
He was taken to a hospital and later placed in ICE custody. His attorney said he was shot in the back and needed medical treatment.<\/p>\n
Federal officials said the shooting happened during a targeted vehicle stop. The Department of Homeland Security said its Homeland Security Investigations unit was investigating the incident with assistance from the FBI.<\/p>\n
The shooting prompted calls from Austin officials and members of Congress for greater transparency and scrutiny of the investigation.<\/p>\n
Why the hearing matters for Texas<\/p>\n
The congressional forum comes as federal immigration enforcement operations face scrutiny in communities across Texas, including the Houston area.<\/p>\n
The hearing is intended to examine ICE\u2019s use of force and allegations of abuse of power, as well as the broader effects of immigration enforcement on Texas communities.<\/p>\n
The forum is a congressional oversight hearing, not a court proceeding. The announcement did not indicate that the hearing itself would determine whether the officer involved in the Austin shooting committed a crime.<\/p>\n
KPRC 2 will continue to follow developments involving federal immigration enforcement in the Houston area.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 Houston-area Democratic lawmakers joined fellow members of Congress in Austin Thursday for a hearing examining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1829,51435,66],"class_list":["post-467258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ice","tag-ice-shooting","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467258","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=467258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}