Bullet holes can be seen in a car in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.
Courtesy of Austin Councilmember Mike Siegel
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Courtesy of Austin Councilmember Mike Siegel
A federal immigration agent shot and injured a man in Austin, Texas, on Sunday authorities said.
The man was identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, of Venezuela, by his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
Lincoln-Goldfinch told NPR he is married to a woman who has legal status to be in the U.S. He called his wife to tell her he had been shot inside his car and was yelling in pain, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
“We were told that he was at this hospital, so we came back and they have run us off the property,” she said, referring to Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. “We have been informed that if he’s in ICE custody, they will decline to confirm that he’s here. And no one has updated her about his status.”
Austin Councilmember Mike Siegel spoke to NPR from the scene of the shooting, which is just blocks from his home. He said he saw that the man’s car had at least two bullet holes in the passenger side. Photos from the scene confirm that.
At least one person in civilian clothes who appeared to be uninjured was put in handcuffs on the scene, according to video provided by Siegel.
Earlier at a press conference, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said that Rafael Garces Perez was in serious but stable condition, .
“This is a terrible incident that we were hoping to avoid in our community,” Councilmember Siegel said. “My hope today is that we can investigate what happened, and if an (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officer committed a crime that they will be fully prosecuted, and then we can hope to restore some semblance of law and order in this country.”
It’s unclear what led to the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.
Dozens of community members gathered to protest at the scene of the shooting. This shooting is the latest in a series of violent encounters involving ICE agents.
Mayor Watson said he was angry and upset about the shooting but “not surprised at all.” He said this has happened in other cities like Chicago and Minneapolis where the Department of Homeland Security has conducted big immigration enforcement operations.
The state of Texas has been working closely with the federal government in issues related to immigration. The Texas Department of Public Safety has been working closely with ICE since President Trump took office last year.
Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat who represents Austin, demanded an independent investigation into Sunday’s shooting.
“Over and over, ICE has shot people and then lied about what happened,” Casar said in a news release, referencing the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. Video footage has disproved DHS’s claims that Good was trying to run over ICE agents with her vehicle.
“We can see the lies with our own eyes. We will demand truth, transparency and accountability,” Casar said.
Sunday’s ICE shooting is at least the second to happen this year in Texas.
In July, federal immigration agents in Houston shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national father of three.
Salgado Araujo was killed after agents attempted to conduct a traffic stop. He was not the target of the warrant agents were trying to execute.
The first person killed by immigration agents since the start of President Trump’s second term was Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025.
