A Venezuelan man who was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and taken to a detention center in Texas with a bullet still lodged in his back had returned to the hospital by Monday night, according to the man's attorney.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters earlier Monday.

He was shot and taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.

During a telephone briefing with the press, Perez recounted that physicians had refrained from extracting the bullet owing to its proximity to his spine.

He stated that ICE had urged his swift discharge from the hospital in order to transfer him to a detention facility.

He further claimed that he had been provided neither pain relief nor medical attention there, and had been obliged to sleep on the floor, until a nurse eventually administered a “pill” to him on Monday.

By Monday night, Lincoln-Goldfinch reported that he had been conveyed to the hospital.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, characterized this as an encouraging initial move.

"Now, we have to ensure he fully recovers, is reunited with his family, and gets to tell law enforcement the full story of how he was shot in the back by ICE," he said.

Perez stated earlier on Monday that ICE officers had not instructed him to stop or activate any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him.

He recounted that he executed a U-turn and was attempting to park when the officers rammed his vehicle and shot him in the back of the neck.

“I am not faring well owing to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone as a member of his attorney’s staff translated during the news conference.

Perez had been detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, situated roughly 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch.

She recounted that Perez had informed her during an earlier phone conversation that he was undergoing interrogation.

The Department of Homeland Security, which exercises oversight over ICE, has disclosed scant information and has refrained from stating what precipitated the shooting.

In a statement issued early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who “had a final order of removal.”

Homeland Security did not immediately respond to email messages seeking further comment regarding the shooting.

Perez entered the U.S. legally in 2024 after utilizing CBP One, a program initiated under President Joe Biden that arranged appointments with U.S. authorities for consideration of asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

President Donald Trump terminated the program on his first day in office.

Perez’s attorneys asserted that he was an asylum seeker and possessed a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch stated.

She recounted that a judge had issued a deportation order for Perez after he failed to appear at an immigration court hearing, as the notice of that hearing had been dispatched to a former address.

"Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all," Lincoln-Goldfinch remarked regarding the shooting in a social media post.

The shooting unfolded against the backdrop of a marked escalation in ICE enforcement throughout the United States during Trump’s second term.

Over the summer, the agency recorded in excess of 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August — an unprecedented milestone for the agency.

Immigration officers have found themselves subject to intense scrutiny amid a spate of shootings that occurred during the crackdown.

At least four individuals have been fatally shot by federal officers in the course of immigration enforcement operations this year.

At the news conference, local advocates, leaders of the civil rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens, and two Democratic congressmen who represent parts of Austin called for the creation of an independent body to review use-of-force incidents by ICE and to refer suspected crimes to prosecutors.

They also urged Congress to ban ICE officers from making traffic stops, arguing that the officers are undertrained and too quick to resort to violence.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has expressed his desire for local police to play a role in investigating the shooting.

Watson stated that it would be inappropriate for ICE to conduct the investigation independently.

On Monday night, demonstrators assembled outside the Texas Capitol in Austin, chanting in opposition to ICE and bearing signs that read, among other things, “Justice 4 Wilber Perez.”

In the area beneath an overpass near the shooting scene, people had left candles, flowers and a sign that read “Justice for Wilber,” while concrete pylons were marked with anti-ICE graffiti.

Reporters and journalists Russ Bynum, based in Savannah, Georgia, and Hallie Golden, based in Seattle, contributed to this report.