By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-29 22:06:58 | Updated at 2026-09-30 00:41:38
2 hours ago
Police block a street after a shooting involving an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20, 2026. AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn
An illegal immigrant was charged on Sept. 29 with striking an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer with his car’s side mirror and leading officers on a high-speed chase in Austin, Texas, federal prosecutors said.
Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez, 28, a Venezuelan, was charged with assaulting, resisting, interfering with, and impeding a federal officer. He made his initial court appearance on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
White House border czar Tom Homan told The Epoch Times that Perez was shot by the ICE agent while trying to flee.
Perez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said that he was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice. She said that after he was hospitalized, he was released into ICE custody with a bullet still lodged in his back.
According to the federal complaint, ICE officers stopped Perez on Sept. 20 after confirming that an immigration judge had issued a final order for his removal. He gave officers his driver’s license but ignored instructions to put his car in park and get out, prosecutors allege.
Perez and one of the officers had what was described in the complaint as a “pleasant and not aggressive” conversation in Spanish about where to move the car and park it, the complaint stated. But one minute later, Perez then abruptly closed the window and sped off, prosecutors allege.
As he drove away, Perez hit an officer in the torso with the driver’s side mirror, according to the complaint.
Officers pursued his vehicle with their lights and sirens on through commercial and residential areas, documents allege. One officer later caught up to Perez and fired his pistol when Perez tried to strike him with the car, according to the complaint.
A detention hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2. Perez faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) posted on social media that ICE officers were “terrorizing our country.” He demanded an independent investigation and asked for “immediate release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law.”
Casar said on Sept. 24 on X that Perez was in a wheelchair in ICE detention and needed surgery.
The Department of Justice said in a Sept. 29 press release that the case is part of Operation Take Back America, a “nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”
