Wilber Garces Perez, who was shot in the back by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month, will remain in custody after a federal court hearing in Austin on Wednesday.
He will not return to the ICE detention facility he was initially taken to in South Texas, according to Daniel Woodward, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project. Instead, he will remain in federal court custody.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas charged Garces Perez, a citizen of Venezuela, with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding a federal officer. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Prosecutors argued that due to Garces Perez fleeing from authorities, having connections in Venezuela, including his parents and his child, and because he faces time in federal prison, he is a flight risk and danger to the community.
Shane McMahon, the criminal defense attorney for Garces Perez, argued that his client had been trying to go through the process of obtaining legal residency in the United States. Garces Perez had an immediate removal order at the time of the shooting due to him missing a court date. He applied for an appeal, but it was denied.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin M. Howell, who presided over the hearing on Wednesday, agreed that Garces Perez was a flight risk, but disagreed with prosecutors that he was a danger to the community.
The prosecution's argument for Garces Perez being a danger stemmed from him allegedly striking an ICE officer with his vehicle, attempting to hit an officer with his car after a chase and disregarding the safety of the public while he fled from officers.
Unreleased body-cam footage shown in court
Rick Bazan, a Department of Homeland Security special agent, said neither he nor his team interviewed the ICE agent who shot Garces Perez, identified in court documents as L.G., as part of their investigation. Bazan also said he did not ask L.G. if he was hit by the vehicle. A separate DHS unit is investigating the shooting.
Bazan said he interviewed Garces Perez and the other ICE officer involved, who is named as D.F. in the arrest affidavit. He also said he used body camera footage from the ICE officers and footage from local businesses to piece together the sequence of events.
Prosecuting attorneys showed body-camera footage from the incident, which has not been released to the public. The footage showed a car chase with the ICE agents as they pursued Garces Perez.
The officer, D.F., who was wearing a body camera, began calling the Texas Department of Public Safety for backup and lost sight of his partner and Garces Perez about six minutes into the pursuit, the video showed. He then turned off his camera before calling L.G. to find out where he was. Bazan testified that the car chase was partly in residential neighborhoods.
The chase lasted about eight minutes, according to Bazan. During questioning by McMahon, the defense attorney, Bazan said he did not ask D.F. why he turned off his camera.
The ICE agents first found out Garces Perez was in the United States illegally after seeing Garces Perez walk into a restaurant and running his license plate through a database, Bazan said.
The ICE officers then waited for Garces Perez to leave the restaurant and drive off, so that they could conduct a traffic stop and arrest him in a less populated area, according to Bazan.
The video showed both officers approaching Garces Perez's car during the initial stop, and the ICE agent, L.G., talking to Garces Perez in Spanish, according to the body camera footage presented in the courtroom.
L.G. identified himself as an immigration officer and asked Garces Perez to put the car in park and step out of the car multiple times. Garces Perez said he would move the car and park it. L.G. then replied they would move the car for him, according to the body camera footage. The back and forth continued with both sides repeating themselves.
Garces Perez then rolled up his window and sped away, the video showed. According to court documents, prosecutors accused Garces Perez of hitting an officer on the torso with his side mirror. McMahon, the defense attorney, said it was not clear, in the courtroom video, to what extent the car made contact with the officer.
According to court documents, officer L.G. caught up with Garces Perez and crashed into his car, forcing it to spin out. In an interview with Bazan, officer D.F. relayed that the other officer, L.G., had told him he feared Garces Perez was trying to hit him with his car.
McMahon then showed a social media video of L.G. getting out of his car after the crash, running behind Garces Perez's car and shooting three times through the rear back window.
Lawyers say Garces Perez needs surgery
Garces Perez's lawyers have demanded he be provided medical care. He has had a bullet lodged in his back since the shooting 10 days ago and appeared in court in a wheelchair. Garces Perez occasionally winced in pain during the court proceedings.
"He is facing permanent immobility and sepsis," said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, a lawyer working on his immigration case, "and medical professionals are calling for surgery for him. Throughout the hearing today, he was wincing in pain, and it's difficult for us to see our client in such pain."
Garces Perez originally had a hearing in San Antonio, where his lawyers were going to argue for his release, but that was canceled.
The shooting of Garces Perez has led to multiple protests in Austin, including one on Sunday at the site of the shooting, which drew over 150 people.
This story has been updated.
Copyright 2026 KUT News