Page T2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 22 September 2026
NO BODY CAM
As it ran on the front
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez was delivering food in Austin on Sunday afternoon when an ICE officer shot him. Austin-Travis County EMS got the call at 12:56. Officials called his condition serious but stable. By Monday the 28-year-old was on a phone call saying he was "not doing well," his lawyer says. By this week he was back in a detention cell after a hospital visit for paralysis care, the bullet still in his back.
Now the part the wire took three days to print. The officer who fired was a recruit, hired last year during the agency's hiring spree, and was not wearing the body camera ICE assigned them. DHS is facing mounting scrutiny over how those recruits were vetted and trained. The government hired fast, assigned cameras, and then produced no footage of the moment one of its own officers shot a man carrying somebody's lunch.…
…(cont) Rep. Greg Casar demanded the bodycam video and a full independent investigation the same day. What arrived instead, days later, came from the Austin Police Department — a city officer's camera, a local government's evidence, running on Fox as the moments after. The federal agency that pulled the trigger contributed nothing to the visual record of it.
Then a judge blocked the deportation. So the arrangement is now fixed in writing: the man ICE shot cannot be removed from the country, and ICE is holding him anyway.
This shape has a file. On August 27, ICE officer Christian Castro walked out of a Brownsville, Texas jail after 90 days, freed when a federal judge blocked Minnesota's effort to extradite him over charges stemming from a shooting during an immigration enforcement operation. On September 4, federal prosecutors charged an ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan immigrant in Minnesota with making false statements about the incident; that officer was taken into custody. On Wednesday, September 16, Minnesota authorities arrested Castro in Minneapolis on an active warrant and booked him into the Hennepin County jail, charges out of Operation Metro Surge. One state has been trying for months to get a federal officer into a courtroom, and the federal courts keep being the reason it doesn't happen.
The same broadcast that carried the Austin video carried the next one: ICE mistakenly targeted and injured a U.S. citizen in Illinois.
Which is when Rep. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey went on television and used the word. Not rogue officer. Rogue agency — one she says should be abolished. She spent the rest of the segment on a pause for new data centers in her state, because that is the size of thing a member of Congress can still get a hand on.
The camera ICE assigned was off. The camera that worked belonged to a city. The man is in a cell with a bullet in his back and a court order saying he stays in the country that shot him.
“They hired fast, skipped the vetting questions until after somebody got shot, and then let the city of Austin supply the pictures — the federal agency's own assigned camera wasn't on. A man is in a cell with a bullet in his back and a judge's order saying he can't be deported, which means the government can't send him away and won't let him go. When the only working camera at a federal shooting belongs to a local cop who happened to pull up, the record of what happened to you is an accident.”
“Look, the officer was a recruit, recruits were hired quickly, and DHS is reviewing the vetting, which is what a functioning department — why is that my problem? There is footage. Austin released footage, so I genuinely don't know what more people are asking for. Did I say the camera doesn't matter? That doesn't sound like me; what I said was that a judge is involved now, and that's the system working, in a sense, depending how you define it.”
The receipts
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on electric shock gloves the UN calls torture — but this officer had no body camera ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026
ICE officer who shot Venezuelan man wasn't wearing body camera, sources sayThe ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan delivery driver was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.
The UN torture rapporteur found direct-contact electric shock gloves "incompatible with the absolute prohibition of torture" - ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on them ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026
Rep. Analilia Mejia calls ICE a "rogue agency" that needs to be abolishedDemocratic Rep. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey joins "The Takeout" to discuss last weekend's ICE shooting of a man in Austin, Texas, and the push for a pause on new data centers in her state.
A judge has blocked the deportation of Wilber Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan immigrant who was shot and wounded by ICE in Austin, Texas. CBS News' Camilo Montoya-Galvez has the story.
Republicans' reconciliation package puts $70 billion into ICE's department NBC News, May 2026
ICE officer in Texas shooting was recruit not using a body cameraThe officer joined ICE last year during the agency’s hiring spree. DHS is facing mounting scrutiny over how the recruits were vetted and trained.
The Austin Police Department on Tuesday released new video of the man shot by ICE in Texas over the weekend. CBS News' Jason Allen has more.
The UN torture rapporteur found direct-contact electric shock gloves 'incompatible with the absolute prohibition of torture' - ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on them ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026
Man shot by ICE being detained with bullet still in his back, lawyer saysWilber Rafael Garces Perez, the 28-year-old Venezuelan national shot by an ICE officer on Sunday, said in a phone call on Monday that he's "not doing well."
Austin police say a brief foot pursuit involving ICE ended with an adult man shot once in the torso and hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
A DoorDash driver who was shot by an ICE officer in Texas is back in detention after a hospital visit for paralysis care. The ICE officer was not wearing their assigned body camera, but Austin Police released video from one of their officers on scene. It comes as ICE mistakenly targeted and injured a U.S.
The UN torture rapporteur found direct-contact electric shock gloves 'incompatible with the absolute prohibition of torture' - ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on them ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026
ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man delivering food in Austin, Texas, lawyer saysAn ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan man Sunday afternoon as he was delivering food in Austin, Texas, his lawyer said.
Austin Police Department body camera footage captures the moments after an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan migrant during an arrest attempt.
Republicans' reconciliation package puts $70 billion into ICE's department NBC News, May 2026
Man in ‘serious but stable condition’ after shooting in Austin involving ICE officer: OfficialsA man is in “serious but stable condition” after being shot in Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon in an incident that involved an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, according to local officials. “At approximately 12:56 in the afternoon today, the Austin-Travis County EMS received a notification from the Austin Police Department…
· Texas ICE officer freed after failed Minnesota extradition request for shooting from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
· DOJ charges ICE officer who shot immigrant with lying to investigators from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· ICE officer accused of shooting man arrested in Minnesota from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.