Texas Students Raise Their Voices for Migrant Families Amid U.S. Raids

She carries the flags of Guatemala and Mexico on her cheeks, in honor of her parents. Estella, 16, was born in the United States and went out with other students to protest against immigration raids, following Sunday's shooting of a Venezuelan man in Austin.

About a hundred high school students in Pflugerville, some 30 km north of Austin, protested Tuesday outside their city's Municipal Court, chanting slogans against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for enforcing President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies.

Estella says she demonstrates for those who cannot do so, like her parents. "I am here and I am glad to be their voice," she stated.

She also laments what happened on September 20 to Venezuelan Wilber Garcés, 28, who received a bullet wound to the upper back while being pursued by ICE agents. Garcés later reported that he is being held in detention even with the projectile still lodged in his body.

"There have been reports that ICE is using unnecessary force (…) They even shot a man who was doing his job, making deliveries. That is unfair," Estella says.

Gia Acosta, a 16-year-old American, came to demonstrate together with her mother, Sarah Rosales. "My grandmother is Mexican, I am Mexican too," she stated.

"We want peace. The presence of ICE agents on our streets and in our schools, in my opinion, is ridiculous. It is ridiculous that our president allows this to happen. What happened on Sunday the 20th, an ordinary person being shot, should not be the solution," Gia stated.

"I am here to support my daughter and the other kids, raising their voices against ICE, which is a terrorist entity backed by Trump that terrorizes our communities, that persecutes our immigrant neighbors and even (U.S.) citizens," commented Rosales, 38.

Trump came to the White House with the promise of expelling millions of immigrants in irregular situations. According to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figures, nearly 51,000 undocumented people were arrested in the United States in August.

ICE has been the target of protests and criticism in various parts of the country for its procedures during immigration operations, including the use of firearms against U.S. citizens.

Garcés's Situation

Garcés's lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, reported Tuesday that a judge summoned her client for an in-person hearing.

"He still feels a lot of pain and has the bullet in his body. We filed a lawsuit in a federal court and the judge has ordered that he be present at the first hearing on September 30, and that implies that, in the meantime, he cannot be deported," she stated.

Lincoln-Goldfinch detailed that, after the contact Garcés had with the press on Monday by telephone, he was sent to confinement. He was in the hospital again for a time afterward but was returned to a detention center.

Garcés detailed on Monday that the bullet he received fractured his collarbone and became lodged near his spine, according to what doctors told him, and was not removed.

The lawyer also recounted that the ICE agent who shot Garcés was not wearing a body camera.

In July, Mexican Lorenzo Salgado died after being shot by an ICE agent in Houston, where the man had lived for more than three decades and had three American children. The agent was also not wearing cameras.

DHS Version

Without giving details of why Garcés received a shot, the Department of Homeland Security assured that Garcés's work permit "expired in 2025. Furthermore, a work permit does NOT grant legal status." It also reported that they never prevented a surgery for Garcés since that is not within their competence.

"Resisting authority and evading arrest is dangerous for our agents, undocumented immigrants, and the public," the DHS stated.

The lawyer has insisted that Garcés entered the country legally in 2024 under a Biden administration program, and that he was seeking asylum. She also said that Garcés did not learn of the hearing on his case because the summons arrived at an old address. For the DHS, that does not exempt him from his obligation.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose institution oversees ICE, rejected on Tuesday the inscriptions against immigration agents that demonstrators made on highway pillars in Austin, near where the shooting occurred.

"No amount of violence or attacks from the left will prevent the Trump administration from fulfilling its duty to make America safe again," he commented on X.