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Judge Blocks Deportation of ICE Shooting Victim Wilber Rafael Garces Perez

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22.09.2026

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The attorney representing Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said Tuesday that a federal judge had granted her emergency request to block the Trump administration from deporting the 28-year-old delivery driver, who was shot by an immigration agent Sunday and has since been transferred multiple times between hospitals and a detention center — all while the officer’s bullet reportedly remains lodged in his back.

“We have filed a federal lawsuit, and the judge has ordered that he be present at the first hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30,” said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. “And that means he won’t be deported in the meantime.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch applauded the rare piece of “good news” that has come out of Garces Perez’s case since he was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent while making DoorDash deliveries in his car Sunday afternoon.

As Common Dreams reported, Garces Perez was transferred from an ICE detention center in Pearsall, Texas to a hospital late Monday after reporting that he had lost feeling in the left side of his body, likely as a result of the bullet that remained close to his spine.

But Lincoln-Goldfinch and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Tuesday that Garces Perez had again been taken back to the detention center.

ICE Keeps Killing Immigrants in Cars It Claims Were “Weaponized” Against Agents

Castro said he and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) plan to visit Garces Perez at South Texas ICE Processing Center on Wednesday, to “check on his condition and demand his release.”

“It is nothing more than a prison,” said Castro. “Wilber came to the United States legally. He had work permits and was an asylum seeker. None of this should have ever happened.”

Garces Perez arrived in the US in 2024 from Venezuela, using a government program for asylum seekers and the CBP One app that was introduced by the Biden administration to make an appointment for........

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