I had just been wondering what the latest word was on Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the Venezuelan national here in the States illegally who'd been shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the end of a traffic stop gone awry.
'Gone awry' is a polite way of saying that, after ICE officers identified Wilber as having a deportation order pending through a completely legal license plate check, they stopped him. Everything was cooperative and copacetic - Wilber had even given officers his driver's license.
And then Wilber pulled the dummy move so many do. For some reason, his brain kicked over to the 'OFF' setting; he rolled up his window with an officer standing snug up next to the car and took off like a bat out of hell, hitting the officer with his sideview mirror as he booked.
For the record, that last paragraph is all new information which came out in court when the feds officially charged Wilber for 'assault on a federal officer.' They have the bodycam footage to go along with the complaint.
🚨 BREAKING: The Venezuelan illegal ICE shot in Austin last week has just been charged by the DOJ with ASSAULTING A FEDERAL OFFICER
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 29, 2026
FAFO! 🔥
Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez, who has a final order of removal, is now facing 18 U.S.C. § 111 after federal prosecutors dropped a criminal… pic.twitter.com/I9MtK9lnch
This adds new context and color to what happened when ICE finally caught up to Wilber after the short pursuit, and why the agents might have thought he was dangerous enough to have weapons at the ready when they finally stopped him.
BREAKING: The Venezuelan illegal alien DoorDash driver who was shot by ICE in Austin, TX last week after a pursuit has just been charged by DOJ w/ assault on a federal officer after Feds say they have ICE bodycam showing Wilber Rafael Garces Perez clipping an officer with his… pic.twitter.com/H7jAHccx7t
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 29, 2026
...clipping an officer with his vehicle when he fled the scene of the initial encounter.
According to the federal complaint:
- Encounter began when ICE agents saw Perez’s vehicle sitting in front of a restaurant with its hazard lights on. They ran the vehicle plates and learned he had a deportation order.
- They initiated a traffic stop when he left the restaurant. Two ICE vehicles boxed him in. The encounter was cordial, Perez gave his ID, then asked if he could move his car before being arrested. ICE said no, and told him to get out of the vehicle. He then rolled the window up and drove off, hitting an officer with his side mirror in the process.
- This began a roughly 8 minute pursuit in which ICE chased him using lights and sirens. The original ICE agent with the bodycam lost track and pulled off.
- His partner, the other ICE agent, then called him and told him Garces Perez had just tried to ram him, so he shot him. He had no bodycam during the shooting.
- Garcés Perez agreed to be interviewed without an attorney after the shooting. He admitted to disregarding ICE's command to get out of the vehicle, and driving away instead.
DOJ says Garces-Perez made his first appearance in federal court today. I convicted, he will face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Also, contrary to every part of the sob story sold to the public and media by the Perez attorneys and family in the days after Wilber's arrest - lies that ICE 'rammed' Wilber's car immediately, that Wilber didn't run from agents...
Minutes before an ICE agent shot and wounded an Austin man, agents had pulled him over in his Toyota sedan and were talking to him along the street, new video shows.
— San Antonio Express-News (@ExpressNews) September 22, 2026
The footage appears inconsistent with parts of the account told by Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez and his attorney.… pic.twitter.com/2SYUMftFCR
...who chased him with no lights or sirens (which is debunked in the CNN video here, as you can clearly hear the sirens)...
🛑 CNN Proves Illegal Alien Fled ICE Stop 🛑
— Katie K USA (@KimKatieUSA) September 25, 2026
CNN tried to criminalize the ICE agent who shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Their own video does the exact opposite.
Garces Perez is a 28-year-old Venezuelan illegal alien who was DoorDashing in North Austin on Sunday, Sept. 20,… https://t.co/OQsnGoTQMo pic.twitter.com/q9raCSchP0
...DHS says he entered illegally, his work permit was expired, and he already had a final order of removal from an immigration judge. ICE ran a targeted vehicle stop near Research Boulevard and Anderson Square.
CNN’s own video shows agents stopping and questioning him long before the underpass. That is the moment he chose to floor it and run. That kills the fairy tale that he was “trying to pull over.” The footage shows flight at dangerously high speed, then the chase ending under the overpass where he was shot.
His mother, Flor Perez, said her son called her after being hit and said immigration was chasing him. He knew ICE was on him and he knew he had a final removal order. He fled because he did not want to be deported. Garces Perez FAFO’d in the hardest way...
... that ICE never identified themselves, rendered no aid after they shot him, ad nauseam - is that Wilber admitted to agents he's the guy who started the entire ugly affair by taking off.
...And in his own interview, he ADMITTED he knew they were immigration officers, ADMITTED they told him not to move the car, and ADMITTED he drove off anyway.
Wilber was in a wheelchair for his hearing, and his high-powered immigration lawyer had the crocodile tears ready for the press afterward.
On Wednesday, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez appeared in court in a wheelchair. Perez was shot in the back by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Sept. 20 and now faces charges for allegedly assaulting an officer while trying to evade arrest. pic.twitter.com/BFq0iyWRcg
— Spectrum News 1 Texas (@SpectrumNews1TX) October 1, 2026
And make no mistake, she's like a member of the Ben Crumpish-Type Immigration Globalist Lawyers Guild.
🚨🤯 Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, of Venezuela, has been magically represented by notable immigration lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
— Erikaaa (@ErikaCA47) September 21, 2026
Her firm works alongside We The Action, an initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
They receive grants from none other than Ford… pic.twitter.com/Kg6Cza0rSh
...They receive grants from none other than Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation. Globalist funded arm to mass import criminal illegals into America
But no worries about Wilber's surgery. The feds had him in the hospital yesterday morning to get it all fixed up.
A Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot by a federal immigration agent in Texas had surgery Thursday to remove the bullet lodged in his back for nearly two weeks.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, had appeared in court in a wheelchair on Wednesday, wearing a sling on his arm. He remains in custody on charges that he assaulted an officer while trying to evade arrest.
Garces Perez struck an officer with his side mirror on Sept. 20 while trying to drive away, authorities said. The federal officer who shot Garces Perez, and who allegedly was hit by the side mirror of Garces Perez’s car, wasn’t wearing a body camera.
Garces Perez faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the assault charge.
It's not like Wilber had anywhere else to go anyway.
NEW: A judge has denied bond for Wilber Garces-Perez, the Venezuelan shot by an ICE agent on Sept. 20th.
— Meredith Aldis (@MeredithonFOX7) September 30, 2026
Garces-Perez is accused of assaulting a federal officer after being pulled over.
He is now in federal criminal detention instead of federal immigration detention.@fox7austin pic.twitter.com/reVZA4pxff
Hopefully he'll have plenty of time to heal before catching that plane back to Venezuela.
It's so heartwarming when a lefty narrative gets decisively crushed like a bug.
Has anyone heard from Texas Opie yet?
He was all over this terrible injustice that yet again turned out to be a steaming, manipulated pile of progressive pig poopie.
Paxton really oughta ask him.
