A recent shooting in Austin, Texas, is bringing to light the lies often used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents (along with agents from several other federal agencies) to justify violence. In the latest shooting, bystander video shows an ICE vehicle ramming a car, an agent exiting the ICE vehicle, and firing at least two rounds onto the back passenger-side window, striking the driver at least once. No agents were in danger or in the car’s path, which was stopped after ICE agents rammed the vehicle.
However, during a press conference, Austin Police said they understood that agents were under threat and that there was a “small foot pursuit” – a narrative not corroborated by publicly available video from multiple angles. While the agency has not officially released a statement saying what it believed happened, the comment highlights how common it is for ICE agents to lie about being threatened before shooting or violently targeting someone.
As if to further illustrate the inhumane nature of the culture at DHS in its child agencies, another video shows an agent not rendering aid as the victim sat in his car with a visible bullet wound.
Despite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) saying that the man “illegally entered our country under the Biden Administration and had a final order of removal,” the victim, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national, was in the country legally and had work authorization, according to his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who identified the man. Austin area Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX-35) is demanding an “immediate, independent investigation” and a release of any footage of the shooting, as is Senate candidate James Talarico.
According to his attorney, Garces Perez, who received an order of removal in absentia during a court date that he wasn’t aware of, was hospitalized for just a few hours and was moved to a detention center in Pearsall, Texas, with the bullet still lodged in his body. In a social media post on X, Lincoln Goldfinch said: “He’s received no pain medication and had to sleep on the floor.” On Monday, Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN that she had to use “back channels” to determine where Garces Perez was being held.
He has since been moved from the detention center to a hospital, likely due to the immediate attention and citizen exposure of what happened.
Because of the Trump administration’s new policy of removing thousands of migrants from the system families use to keep track of their loved ones, Garces Perez did not appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. The agent who shot Garces Perez was placed on administrative leave while the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and Austin Police are asking that it be a “co-equal” partners in the investigation, saying, “As has occurred in other jurisdictions, it is possible that this incident included violations of state law.”
DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are conducting a joint investigation. The Office of the Texas Rangers and Austin Police’s Special Investigations Unit are conducting their own investigation. Texas Rangers investigate law enforcement-involved shootings in Texas. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis issued a statement on social media asking anyone with video or photographic evidence to submit it to Austin Police to assist in the investigation.
One key piece of evidence will be the call ICE made to Texas State Troopers, seeking assistance with a vehicle chase. By the time troopers arrived on the scene, Garces Perez had already been shot. While yet to be determined, the call may have been used as a pretext to justify the shooting. By claiming the suspect was trying to flee, they can paint him as a potential threat to the general public and rationalize violence. ICE’s history here is objectively not good.
More than two dozen allegations of vehicles being weaponized against agents have fallen apart under the slightest scrutiny. Felony cases of assault against agents levied on protesters in Los Angeles were dropped after false claims were revealed. ICE agents were found to have lied under oath in a shooting in Minnesota, in what police secretly refer to as “testilying.” ICE has also repeatedly ignored court orders, and its legal team, along with the Department of Justice (DOJ), has presented dubious cases in court, diminishing all semblance of what is known as “presumption of regularity.”
Case after case, ICE and other federal agencies have been found not to be justified in using violence against migrants, and many were caught lying about the incidents. More troubling are the incidents that we don’t hear about because they didn’t result in death. Like police brutality in the U.S., we only ever hear about cases when lives are lost, and the damage is done. Meanwhile, migrants are suffering in what is nothing short of concentration camps, where sexual assaults, brutality, miscarriages, and deaths are occurring at an alarming rate.
While none of this is new, it is more visible under the current administration. The media’s lack of attention to the matter is largely why it’s so bad today and why Trump is able to do what he’s doing. For corporate news, sensationalism sells, no matter the cost. For example, this case occurred days ago, and the media didn’t touch it until the protests began and millions of voices online demanded it.
They were too busy patting themselves on the back for suing Trump. Suddenly, a migrant being shot was sensational enough to cover.
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