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Federal prosecutors on Monday charged an illegal alien who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent after allegedly turning a routine immigration arrest into an impromptu demolition derby.
Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez, 28, was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer after he allegedly struck an ICE officer with his car’s side-view mirror while fleeing.
The incident began September 20 in Austin, Texas, when ICE officers pulled Garces-Perez over after determining that he had a deportation order and there were no Democrats to hide him.
This was apparently the moment when things could have remained extremely boring.
Garces-Perez handed the officers his driver’s license, which they used to verify his identity. The officers then asked him to put the car in park and step outside.
Instead, after approximately a minute of conversation in Spanish, Garces-Perez allegedly “abruptly closed the window and drove off.”
According to the Justice Department, he allegedly struck an ICE officer in the torso with the driver’s side-view mirror while making his escape.
At some point, the situation apparently graduated from immigration enforcement to the sort of event that causes police departments to start requesting helicopters.
Garces-Perez allegedly led officers on a high-speed vehicle chase. Hopefully it will eventually make its way to YouTube for our entertainment appetite.
During the pursuit, one officer lost sight of both Garces-Perez and his partner. Minutes later, the officer's partner called to report that Garces-Perez had allegedly tried to hit him with his vehicle and that he had fired his pistol.
Garces-Perez was shot.
The complaint confirms that the ICE officer who fired the shot was not wearing a body camera, ensuring that an already complicated incident could now become an even more spectacular argument on social media.
Naturally, anti-ICE protesters soon took to the streets of Austin to denounce what they described as an unprovoked attack.
The protesters were apparently not impressed by the inconvenient details involving a deportation order, an alleged attempt to flee, a high-speed chase and a vehicle allegedly being used against an ICE officer.
Those details remain under investigation, where they will presumably receive considerably less attention than the outrage generated by the shooting.
Garces-Perez later said ICE detained him with a bullet still lodged near his spine, according to The Texas Tribune. He said medical staff told him they would not remove the bullet because of its proximity to his spine.
Calling into a news conference from detention, Garces-Perez offered a very different version of events.
He claimed an unmarked SUV sideswiped him twice before he realized that ICE officers were attempting to pull him over. The Venezuelan national said he made a U-turn under a freeway underpass when the SUV struck his car and that only then did the unmarked SUVs activate their emergency lights and sirens.
There is also the curious matter of why ICE was interested in him to begin with.
Garces-Perez had previously failed to appear for an immigration hearing at which a judge ordered his deportation, according to The Texas Tribune.
His immigration lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, offered an explanation for the missed hearing.
“I’ve been an immigration lawyer for 20 years, doing removal defense cases, like thousands of cases in the immigration court system. This is a very common outcome that the immigration court does not properly update people’s addresses,” she said. “The person doesn’t arrive, and they order them deported in absentia. I would say, maybe daily in my law practice, we see this happen.”
So, according to the defense account, the immigration system sent the notice to the wrong address.
Then ICE eventually found him.
Then officers allegedly asked him to get out of his vehicle.
Then he allegedly drove away.
Then an officer was allegedly struck by the vehicle.
Then there was a high-speed chase.
Then a gun was fired.
Then Garces-Perez was shot.
And then protesters took to the streets to explain why the entire thing was apparently the fault of ICE.
The legal system will now sort through the competing accounts and determine what actually happened.
Garces-Perez could face up to two decades behind bars if convicted.
For now, one lesson appears to be emerging from the case: when federal immigration officers inform you that they have located you and would like you to step out of your vehicle, attempting to turn the encounter into a high-speed chase may result in the federal government becoming considerably more interested in your whereabouts.
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