Wilber Garcés Pérez is charged federally with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding a federal officer.
A man shot by an ICE agent in North Austin is expected in federal court in downtown Austin today as he faces a new criminal case that has also delayed his immigration proceedings.
Wilber Garcés Pérez is charged federally with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding a federal officer. He also had a hearing in San Antonio to challenge his detention and removal from the country, but that hearing has been postponed.
His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said rapid changes in his custody status left her legal team trying to locate him Tuesday and determine which federal case would proceed first. She said that when she logged on for a scheduled call with him yesterday morning, he was not there.
“That began a scramble with the legal team to try to figure out what happened to our client. Was he in the hospital? Had he been deported? Was he sent to a third country? We didn’t know until we heard that he had been taken to the federal courthouse in Austin and charged criminally,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
“I want to be really clear. This is an example of the government playing games with the life of a human being who matters very much to us and to his family,” she said.
According to the criminal complaint, ICE stopped Garcés Pérez on Sept. 20. Prosecutors allege he drove away and his side mirror hit an officer. After a pursuit, prosecutors say he tried to hit another officer and was shot. Garcés Pérez gave investigators a different account.
The ICE officer who fired was not wearing a body camera.
The shooting sparked outrage, with several rallies, protests and high-school walkouts taking place in the last week and a half.
Austin Democratic Socialists of America is planning a solidarity vigil today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
