The Venezuelan man shot by federal immigration officers after a traffic stop in Texas needs surgery to avoid losing feeling on the left side of his body, according to his supporters. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, has spent the past five days in detention with a bullet lodged in his back, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rapidly removed him from a hospital in Austin where he had been taken on Sunday after the shooting. In the days since, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, and Garcés Pérez’s supporters have sparred over the details of events surrounding the shooting and about the quality of medical care Garcés Pérez has received while in federal immigration detention.
Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat, who visited Garcés Pérez on Wednesday, told reporters that he found the man in a wheelchair with a sling on his left arm, who had only recently been given stronger painkillers and who said he had been told by a medical specialist that he required surgery to remove the bullet stuck between his shoulder blades. But if Wilber and his wife decide that he needs to go through a surgery, then ICE needs to expedite his care,” Casar said. In a statement, the agency also disputed Garcés Pérez’s earlier claim that he had slept on the floor on his first night of detention.
He was removed from a hospital in Austin by federal officers on the afternoon of the shooting and taken to a detention center about 140 miles away, to the west of San Antonio. DHS did not respond to questions from the Guardian regarding Garcés Pérez’s medical treatment and the investigation into the shooting that is underway. A timeline for any surgery is still unknown, Garcés Pérez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said on Friday.
The developments and disagreements this week have kept attention on the shooting in Austin, which rattled many in the Texas capital and state’s most liberal big city. ICE has attracted heavy criticism from some city leaders, including the mayor, Kirk Watson. Democratic politicians and migrant rights organizations have stepped up calls since the shooting for ICE to stop conducting traffic stops and random questioning of immigrants.
Middle school and high school students at schools across the Austin area, including at predominantly Hispanic schools, walked out throughout the week, waving signs and flags from Latin American countries. DHS was not moved only to reiterate its position. A federal judge ordered that Garcés Pérez be present at a court hearing next week, where a judge is expected to begin considering a habeas corpus petition seeking his release.
The local attorney general has filed a letter asking for Garcés Pérez be kept in the United States during the investigation because of his importance as a witness in his own shooting. Garcés Pérez is the subject of a court order to remove him from the US but, meanwhile, his legal team has applied for a visa on the claim that he has been the victim of violent crime by ICE. Lincoln-Goldfinch said she lost contact with her client for more than two days following a dramatic moment where he was able to get on a call with her during a press conference she was holding on Monday.
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