Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot by ICE recruit, denied pain care in detention
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash driver who had lived in Austin for about two years, was shot by an ICE agent after officers in an unmarked SUV sideswiped his car near Research Boulevard. He said he had asked to pull over and was shot without exiting his vehicle, contradicting DHS's initial account of a foot chase; the officer was a recent recruit hired during ICE's hiring surge whose body camera was not in use. He had entered the U.S. legally in 2024 through the CBP One program and held a valid work permit, though he had an in-absentia deportation order his attorney says stemmed from a notice sent to an old address. Hospitalized at Dell Seton Medical Center with a bullet lodged near his spine, he was released into ICE custody and transferred to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, where his attorney says he slept on a cement floor, was interrogated without counsel, and was denied adequate pain medication until he lost feeling on his left side and returned to the hospital with partial paralysis. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, filed a federal habeas petition and lawsuit seeking his release and to stop his removal, saying his communication privileges were revoked after he spoke to reporters. DHS said Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI would investigate, protesters gathered at the scene, and local officials including Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, Rep. Greg Casar, and Rep. Joaquin Castro called for an independent investigation and release of body camera footage.






























