A Venezuelan man who was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and conveyed 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 effecting a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his vehicle was “sideswiped” on two occasions by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch apprised reporters earlier Monday.

He was shot and conveyed to a hospital, she said, yet was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still lodged within him.

Speaking telephonically during a news conference, Perez had stated that physicians had not excised the bullet owing to its proximity to his spine.

He said ICE had pressed for his expeditious discharge from the hospital so that it might transfer him to a detention center.

He said he had been administered neither pain medication nor treatment there, and had slept upon the floor, before ultimately being given a “pill” by a nurse on Monday.

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

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, characterized this as an auspicious initial stride.

"What we must now ensure is that he makes a full recovery, is reunited with his family, and is afforded the opportunity to recount to law enforcement, in its entirety, the circumstances by which he was shot in the back by ICE," he said.

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

He recounted that he executed a U-turn and was endeavouring 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 some 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch, who recounted that Perez had informed her during a prior telephone conversation that he was being subjected to interrogation.

The Department of Homeland Security, the agency that exercises oversight over ICE, has divulged scant information and has refrained from disclosing what precipitated the shooting.

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

Homeland Security was not immediately forthcoming in its response to email messages seeking further comment on the shooting.

Perez entered the United States lawfully in 2024 by way of CBP One—a program inaugurated under President Joe Biden that arranged appointments with U.S. authorities for consideration of asylum claims, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

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

Perez’s attorneys contended that he was an asylum seeker in possession of a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch recounted.

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

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

The shooting unfolded against the backdrop of a pronounced escalation in ICE enforcement throughout the United States over the course of Trump's second term.

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

Immigration officers have found themselves subjected to unrelenting scrutiny amid a spate of shootings carried out during the crackdown.

No fewer than four individuals have been fatally shot by federal officers in the course of immigration enforcement operations this year.

During the news conference, local advocates, leaders of the civil rights organization the League of United Latin American Citizens, and two Democratic congressmen representing portions of Austin issued a call for the establishment of an independent body to scrutinize use-of-force incidents involving ICE and to refer suspected crimes to prosecutors.

They further exhorted Congress to proscribe ICE officers from conducting traffic stops, contending that such officers are inadequately trained and all too prone to resorting to violence.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has articulated his aspiration for local police to assume a role in investigating the shooting.

Watson contended that it would be inappropriate for ICE to conduct the investigation unilaterally.

On Monday night, demonstrators assembled beyond the Texas Capitol in Austin, intoning chants directed against ICE and bearing placards emblazoned with such slogans as, “Justice 4 Wilber Perez.”

Beneath the overpass adjacent to the shooting scene, mourners had deposited candles and flowers alongside a placard bearing the inscription “Justice for Wilber,” whilst the concrete pylons were defaced with anti-ICE graffiti.

Correspondents Russ Bynum, stationed in Savannah, Georgia, and Hallie Golden, stationed in Seattle, contributed to this report.