A federal judge has blocked the deportation of a Venezuelan man shot in the back by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin, his attorney said.
Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said Tuesday that a federal judge granted an emergency order halting the removal of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
A hearing in the case is set for Sept. 30 in San Antonio, and the judge ordered that Garces Perez be present, KUT reported.
The officer who shot Garces Perez on Sunday was not wearing his body camera, three Department of Homeland Security officials with knowledge of the shooting told The Atlantic.
That officer was hired last year and previously worked for another federal law enforcement agency, two of the officials said. A second officer working with him that day had a camera turned on, two of the officials said. Both officers were driving unmarked vehicles.
"Show us your body cam footage. Show us your dashcam footage. Otherwise, nobody believes you," Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a video she posted on X.
Garces Perez called into a news conference Monday afternoon and spoke to reporters through a translator, The Atlantic reported.
"I have not received the medical attention that I require," he said.
Guards at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall took a tablet from his hands after he spoke publicly and revoked his communication privileges, Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote on Instagram.
They also moved him out of the infirmary and into an isolated room with a flat bed that cannot be adjusted like a medical bed, she said. Garces Perez was discharged from an Austin hospital about four hours after the Sunday shooting, with the bullet still lodged in his body, and he slept on the floor his first night in detention, according to his attorney.
He lost the ability to move his arm Monday and was taken back to a hospital around 5 p.m., where doctors gave him intravenous morphine, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. The gunshot fractured his collarbone, and he is wearing a sling.
He was returned to Pearsall around midnight and now receives only Tylenol and ibuprofen for the pain, she said. The Statesman reported that her claims about his treatment in detention have not been independently verified.
"We are asking for his communication privileges to be immediately restored and for him to be provided an appropriate medical bed and adequate medical care," Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote, adding that she is pushing for his immediate release.
The Department of Homeland Security has said Garces Perez entered the country illegally and has a final order of removal, according to the Statesman.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said he entered legally in 2024 through a Biden-era program, holds a work permit, and received the removal order only because a notice of his immigration hearing was mailed to an old address.
"I see this all the time in my practice, and it's a mistake we can easily correct. It does not justify shooting people in the street," she wrote.
Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to questions from The Atlantic about the shooting or whether the officer will face discipline.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) called for Garces Perez's release Tuesday after ICE returned him to the detention center, the Statesman reported.
"It is nothing more than a prison," Castro wrote of the Pearsall facility.
Castro said he and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) plan to visit Garces Perez at the detention center Wednesday.
