Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, was shot by ICE agents during a targeted vehicle stop in Austin, Texas on September 20. Within twenty-four hours, his immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch posted on X that he was "being held at Pearsall for interrogation and still has the bullet lodged in his body. He's received no pain medication and had to sleep on the floor."
Then DHS checked the receipts.
Secretary Markwayne Mullin's department issued a point-by-point rebuttal that dismantled every claim the sympathy campaign was built on. Garces Perez entered the country illegally under the Biden Administration. His work permit expired in 2025. A DOJ Immigration Judge issued a final removal order. He was ordered removed in absentia — meaning he didn't bother showing up to his own hearing.
The "no pain medication" claim? DHS confirmed he had been receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication. The "sleeping on the floor" claim? He was sleeping on a bed upon arrival at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall. TPUSA journalist Savannah Hernandez obtained video that contradicted Garces Perez's account of the stop itself.
None of that slowed down the political operation already in motion. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas's 35th district organized a congressional letter signed by over 100 Democratic members demanding ICE "cease any and all efforts to interfere with a comprehensive investigation" and set a September 28 deadline for DHS to respond. A hundred signatures on a letter built on claims that were already falling apart.
Mullin wasn't having it. "Sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies about an ICE officer-involved shooting of an illegal alien in Austin, Texas," he said. "The Trump Administration will remain focused on protecting the American people."
The playbook here is familiar. Someone with a final removal order gets encountered by ICE. An attorney and friendly elected officials race to build a sympathetic narrative before anyone checks the file. The goal is to create the next Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a name that becomes a symbol, a rallying cry, a reason to block enforcement. It works when the facts stay vague long enough for the narrative to harden.
This time it didn't work. DHS responded on September 22, two days after the incident, with specifics that made the attorney's claims look reckless. Expired work permit. Illegal entry. Final removal order. In absentia. Medical care confirmed. Each fact was a door closing on the story Casar and Lincoln-Goldfinch were trying to tell.
The distinction a work permit creates is worth noting. Lincoln-Goldfinch framed her client as someone who had been living and working legally in the United States. A work permit that expired in 2025 doesn't establish legal status — it establishes that whatever temporary authorization existed had already ended. The attorney knows this. She said it anyway.
A man entered illegally, skipped his hearing, let his permit lapse, and received a final order of removal. He was encountered by ICE, shot during a vehicle stop, hospitalized, transferred to detention, and given continuous medical care. His attorney posted claims on social media that the government's own records contradicted within forty-eight hours. A hundred members of Congress signed a letter demanding answers to questions that had already been answered.
The deadline is September 28. The facts arrived September 22.
