Federal prosecutors charged a Venezuelan illegal immigrant shot by ICE in Austin with assaulting a federal officer after he fled a stop and struck an agent with his vehicle.
Fox News reported that Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez, 28, made his initial federal court appearance Tuesday after the Justice Department announced the charges stemming from a vehicle pursuit earlier this month.
Garces-Perez faces counts of assaulting, resisting, interfering with and impeding a federal officer. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He is being held at an ICE detention facility, and a detention hearing is set for Oct. 2.
The case began with a targeted enforcement stop, not a random encounter. ICE officers spotted his vehicle outside a restaurant in Austin, ran the plate, and confirmed an immigration judge had already issued a final order of removal against him.
During the initial contact, Garces-Perez handed over his driver’s license. Officers later described the exchange as “pleasant and not aggressive.” They instructed him to put the vehicle in park and step out.
Body camera footage shows him abruptly closing his window and driving away instead. As he fled, his driver’s side-view mirror struck one of the officers in the torso. He later told federal investigators he disregarded the command to exit and drove off.
ICE officers pursued him through commercial and residential areas with emergency lights and sirens activated. One officer wearing a body camera lost sight of both the suspect and his partner while calling a DPS dispatcher for help, then turned the camera off. The second officer, who was not equipped with a body camera, later fired his service weapon.
That second officer called his partner and reported that Garces-Perez had attempted to strike him with the vehicle, prompting the shots. The bullet struck Garces-Perez in the upper back. Similar ICE enforcement shootings in Austin have drawn intense scrutiny in recent months.
Garces-Perez gave investigators a different version after he was shot. He claimed the officer’s SUV rammed his vehicle to force it into a spinout. He said that after the shooting, the officer opened his driver’s door, removed the keys from the ignition, and told him to remain inside while an ambulance was en route.
Investigators read him his Miranda rights in Spanish. He said he understood them and agreed to speak without an attorney present. Those statements now form part of the federal complaint.
ICE has also stated that his work authorization expired in 2025 and that a work permit does not itself confer lawful immigration status. The final removal order already on the books undercut any claim of settled status.
Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has focused on the camera that went dark. In a social media post, she said the criminal complaint revealed that one officer turned off his body camera during the pursuit and that her team has not seen that footage.
"The criminal complaint also provides another critical piece of information: one of the officers involved in the incident had a body camera that was turned off at some point during the pursuit. We have not seen that footage. DHS must release the body camera footage immediately and provide full transparency to the American public,"
Lincoln-Goldfinch added that her client is now facing both the federal criminal case and a federal immigration habeas case. She said he remains seriously ill with the bullet still lodged in his body while held in ICE custody.
"He is now facing proceedings in both a federal criminal case and his federal immigration habeas case. We are working through what these developments mean, and we will share additional information as we are able."
She has also argued that the underlying removal order followed a hearing notice sent to an old address even after an address update. That claim remains her assertion; the complaint treats the final order as valid and the basis for the stop.
Local political reaction often moves faster than the facts. Austin Democrats condemned ICE in prior shooting cases within hours, sometimes before the subject was even identified.
Federal prosecutors did not charge Garces-Perez for being in the country illegally. They charged him for assaulting and impeding officers who were executing a lawful removal order after he fled and struck an agent. The distinction matters.
Footage circulating online appears to show DHS vehicles with lights and sirens pursuing him just before the shooting. The complaint already lays out the sequence: plate check, confirmed removal order, commands ignored, flight, mirror strike, chase, and shots after the reported vehicle threat.
Other recent cases have shown how quickly official accounts of ICE shootings can face challenges. A DHS account of a fatal Houston ICE shooting drew hard questions once witness disputes emerged, which is why full video release serves the public interest here as well.
Still, the core facts in Austin are not in serious dispute on the charging side. An illegal immigrant under a final removal order refused lawful commands, fled, struck an officer, and was shot after a second officer reported an attempted vehicle strike. He now sits in federal custody facing up to two decades behind bars.
Some on the left treat every ICE use of force as a political opening. One Maine Democrat cast an ICE shooting as a chance to dismantle the agency itself rather than examine the underlying refusal to comply with removal orders.
Garces-Perez’s attorney is right to demand the body camera footage. The public is right to expect ICE to follow its own recording rules. And the Justice Department is right to charge a man who turned a removal stop into a dangerous chase through Austin streets.
When an immigration judge issues a final order of removal, it is not a suggestion. Officers who enforce it should not have to absorb vehicle strikes and high-speed flight as the cost of doing their jobs.
