Venezuelan Shot by ICE in Texas Faces Charges Carrying Up to 20 Years

A Venezuelan citizen wounded by gunfire from an immigration agent in Texas was charged by the federal government with assault and other criminal counts, which could carry up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice reported Tuesday.

The incident adds to other recent cases recorded during immigration operations promoted by Republican President Donald Trump, criticized by Democratic legislators and humanitarian organizations for the use of force.

Wilber Garcés, 28, who remains detained and still has a bullet lodged near his spine, appeared Tuesday before a federal court in Texas, where he was charged with assault, resisting, obstructing and hindering an authority.

According to court documents, on September 20, agents of the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Garcés after an immigration judge issued a final deportation order against him.

Garcés was driving his vehicle while working as a delivery driver. According to the complaint, during the detention he handed his driver's license to the agents, who asked him to park and get out of the vehicle, orders he allegedly ignored.

According to his accusers, Garcés resumed driving and hit one of the agents with his rearview mirror. The agents caught up with him and one of them, identified by the initials L.G., claimed that Garcés tried to run him over with his vehicle, so he fired his weapon.

ICE and the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are investigating the case.

Local authorities, humanitarian organizations and Democratic Party congressmembers have called for an independent investigation.

"If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison," the Department of Justice detailed.

Garcés remains held in a migrant center in Texas. In a telephone communication with the press, he stated that he asked the ICE agents to allow him to park his car in a safe place before surrendering. According to his account, he tried to move to do so, but the agents prevented him, hit his vehicle and then he was shot.

"He still has the bullet lodged in his body, a fractured collarbone and reduced mobility. We are worried that he could develop sepsis and suffer permanent damage if he is not operated on soon," his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said Sunday.

Garcés's defense has filed a habeas corpus petition and is asking that he be released and taken to a hospital.

A Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado, died in July after an ICE agent shot him in Houston, Texas, where he had lived for more than 30 years and had three American children.