ICE agent shoots DoorDash driver during delivery in Austin sparking new protests

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and wounded a man working as a DoorDash driver on Sunday, city officials said, in the latest instance of government violence allegedly tied to President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign .

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national, was working when he was shot once in the torso and rushed to hospital, his lawyer told reporters. The 28 year-old was in a serious but stable condition.

Local officials are seeking answers from federal authorities, who have not yet said what led up to the shooting or whether he was a target of ICE. The shooting comes months after a man was shot dead by an ICE officer in Houston , Texas .

Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer representing the family, told CBS that Garces Perez called his wife “yelling in pain”. She told NPR that he was in ICE custody.

Officials said that city police officers were not present at the time of the shooting, which took place at the intersection of U.S. 183 and Anderson Square in North Austin at around 12:55pm local time.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said she was told the shooter “is an ICE agent,” and Mayor Kirk Watson said he was “very angry” over the shooting.

“Part of what makes me angry about this, part of what makes me so unhappy about it, is that we live in a time where there's a politics of fear, where people are trying to create fear ,” Watson said.

Watson said there was “no reason for us to be surprised” by the shooting, given “the nature of ICE and how it’s doing its business” in other cities. He called for an independent, third-party investigation, saying it “would not be appropriate” to let ICE conduct the probe .

Davis said: “I trust the Texas Rangers, and I trust [the Texas Department of Public Safety]...to work alongside us and to get — to get answers. Absolutely.”

In a statement published on social media, the Department of Homeland Security described the victim as “an illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal”.

“The illegal alien’s condition is stable, and he is in federal custody pending removal. This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information becomes available,” the department wrote on X.

Lincoln-Goldfinch, representing the family, contested the claims, telling Fox News: “We do not want to speculate or provide information that has not yet been confirmed.

“What we do understand is that he previously held a valid work permit and that, based on the information available to us, he entered the United States lawfully.”

Spokespersons for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately return inquiries from The Independent .