Two immigration officers are sitting in their cars when they see Wilber Perez walk into a restaurant in the city of Austin. When they do a search on his license plate, they see that he has a deportation order and decide to stop him at a red light.
One of the agents walks up to Perez and starts speaking Spanish. When the delivery boy suddenly drives away, an eight-minute car chase begins, which ends with one of the agents driving into the 28-year-old's vehicle.
After that, the information about what happened falls apart. The body camera that captured the beginning of the sequence of events has been turned off.
According to the migration police, Wilber Perez tries to run over one of the agents, who fires three shots at the car. The 28-year-old, who denies the charges, is hit by a bullet in the back and arrested.
A doctor who examines him four days later determines that he needs urgent surgery to avoid the risk of lead poisoning and paralysis. Even so, it will take another week before the bullet is removed.
- The prison he is in now is very cold and he still feels pain, especially at night, says Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch who receives us in her home in North Austin.
She talks to her client every day on the phone, as well as to his family. The last time she saw him was during the custody hearing, when he still had the bullet in his back.
- He was in a wheelchair and halfway through the detention hearing, his painkillers ran out. He grinned evilly and signaled to me that he was in a lot of pain.
Do you know why it took so long for him to have surgery?
- No, we have not received any explanation for that.
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has worked on migration cases for 20 years but has never been involved in a more high-profile case. It has resulted in countless interviews â but also in threats and hatred from people who support ICE.
The threats have been made by telephone, in comment fields on the Internet and by fax.
- One person said he hoped I would be raped and killed like Laken Riley, she says.
Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was raped and murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant in 2024.
Wilber Perez is also from Venezuela. He came to the United States in December 2023 and applied for asylum under a system used during the Biden administration. Perez settled in Austin, started working as a food delivery boy and married a woman from the same country.
In August 2025, he received a deportation order after missing a court hearing. That was because the summons was sent to the wrong address, according to Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who says her client is trying to appeal the decision.
Following the arrest, several demonstrations have been held in Austin in protest against ICE. Wilber Perez's case is far from the only thing that has drawn attention this year.
Last week, a man in New York was shot by an ICE agent while his five-year-old son was in the car. Two days later, a man was run over by an ICE agent in Houston and taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
Since Donald Trump was sworn in as president for the second time, at least 22 people have been shot by the immigration agency ICE and the Border Patrol, according to Reuters. Seven of them have died. The most famous examples are the American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti who were shot dead in January in Minneapolis.
Despite that, few have been held accountable. However, the migration authority has in several cases accused those affected by the violence of crimes, as in the case of Wilber Perez. He is now accused of violence against an official and risks 20 years in prison.
- It almost never happened before Trump's second term. Now that method is used regularly, says Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
With her 20 years in the profession, she sees big differences in how the authorities work today compared to a few years ago.
- I never thought it would get this bad. They arrest parents with children who are US citizens and people who have lived here almost their entire lives with impunity.
Even Barack Obama deported many from the US, what's the difference?
- That's right, but then it was mainly people who had just crossed the border.
DN has asked the migration agency ICE why it took so long before Wilber Perez was operated on and how they view the criticism of the agency, but have not received an answer.
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