The unarmed immigrant ICE officers shot in the back while he was driving for DoorDash in Texas last week now has been charged criminally with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding a federal officer. His immigration attorney says the Trump administration charges are suspicious.
A Sept. 29 Justice Department news release announced the charges. The headline on the news release states, “Illegal Alien from Venezuela Charged with Assaulting and Resisting a Federal Officer in Austin.”
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez is not, in fact, an “illegal” alien. He entered the United States in 2024 seeking asylum via a Biden-era program and later got a work permit. After he changed his address and missed a hearing notice sent to his former address, the Trump administration began deportation proceedings. The administration has claimed people like Perez who came in legally during the Biden administration are, in fact, “illegals.”
Trump officials have imprisoned Perez and denied him further medical treatment despite the fact he has a bullet lodged in his spine and is in intense pain.
Screenshot of Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch
Perez’s immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, posted a video update about her client midday Sept. 29
“At 7:00 a.m., I had a scheduled call with Wilbur, and I logged on to Zoom and did not see him. When I called the detention center I was told, ‘Sorry, your client is no longer at this facility.’ That began a scramble with the legal team to try to figure out what happened to our client.”
Eventually, they learned Perez had been moved from San Antonio, Texas, to the federal courthouse in Austin.
“We were able to get to the courthouse, and I was able to see Wilbur,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “He was clearly very emotionally distraught and in so much pain he was dizzy. He was lightheaded. He was wincing. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him”
Because of his injuries, Perez has difficulty putting on his translation headphones for the court hearing and has difficulty signing papers, she added. “He’s immobile because he has a bullet in his body.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like I experienced today seeing my client behind a cage, trying to give him comfort that there is a team of people — his legal team and a community of people — behind him supporting him, wanting him to be OK,” she said. “His family is distraught.”
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Perez’s case “is an example of the government playing games with the life of a human being who matters very much to us and to his family, and we see it clearly for what it is.
Perez’s case “is an example of the government playing games with the life of a human being who matters very much to us and to his family.”
She called on the Trump administration to release the full bodycam footage of the ICE encounter with Perez “so we understand what happened from start to finish. Enough of this piecemeal information. Enough of this narrative that only gives us pieces and parts of the story. And enough of treating Wilbur like his life doesn’t matter, like his pain doesn’t matter, like whether he lives or dies doesn’t matter.”
The federal complaint against Perez and his own statements about what happened Sept. 20 differ greatly — as often has been the case in ICE-related shootings.
The criminal complaint alleges that during a traffic stop to detain Perez for deportation, he showed his driver’s license but refused to step out of the vehicle as ordered. The complaint alleges Perez “abruptly closed his window and drove off, striking one of the ICE ERO officers in the torso with the driver’s side-view mirror.”
According to the feds, officers pursued Perez in their vehicles with emergency lights and sirens activated and Perez led them on a high-speed chase through a commercial and residential area. The complaint also alleges Perez “attempted to strike the officer with his car, causing the officer to fire his pistol.”
Similar claims have been made by ICE officers in other places when agents have shot citizens and they generally have been found to be lies. More than 20 people have been shot at by federal agents since Donald Trump took office last year, and nearly all the incidents have been in cars.
The New York Times has reported Perez’s account of what happened that day: “He has said that he was in the middle of a food delivery that day when a black SUV tried to hit his car out of nowhere. He said he thought it was an aggressive driver and kept driving. Mr. Garces Perez said the SUV then struck his car and turned on police lights after the collision. He was shot after the car was stopped.”
Perez appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Tuesday. A detention hearing is set for Friday, Oct. 2. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The criminal charges are separate from the administration’s deportation case against him.
Related:
When you vote, remember Wilber Rafael Garces Perez | Opinion by Stephen Reeves