ONCE AGAIN, AN IMMIGRANT HAS BEEN SHOT BY ICE in Texas—this time he survived.
asserted
he → shoot → Texas
But the circumstances again point to out-of-control, trigger-happy agents shooting to kill, just six weeks before Election Day.
asserted
circumstances → point → Day
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery Sunday afternoon when he was set upon by ICE agents in unmarked cars.
asserted
he → make → cars
He video-called his mother, Flor Pérez, in Venezuela so she could see what was happening to him.
uncertain
what → call → him
“Mom, ICE is chasing me!” he screamed.
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he → chase → me
“They shot me, Mom!”
asserted
They → shoot → me
“He was screaming loudly, that it hurt that they had shot him in the back, he wasn’t sure if it was in the arm, he wasn’t sure where he had been shot,” Perez said in a Spanish-language interview with journalist Carlos Moreno.
asserted
Perez → scream → Moreno
A witness who was able to speak to Wilber told journalist Emiliano Tahui Gómez that ICE agents did not render aid, in contravention of their affirmative duty to request or render medical aid following the use of force.
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agents → speak → force
Eventually, an Austin police officer ripped open Wilber’s shirt, where the witness saw a deep hole where he had been shot between the shoulder blades.
asserted
he → rip → blades
An NBC News reporter posted a graphic photo capturing Wilber’s injury.
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reporter → post → injury
In the interview, Wilber’s mother said her son told her that agents had crashed into his car and that he then ended the call so he could contact his wife.
uncertain
he → say → wife
Wilber’s mother hoped he could call 911 to tend to him, but when she tried to call him again, he didn’t answer.
uncertain
he → hop → him
His phone had already been confiscated.
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phone → confiscate → ?
The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that the agents encountered Wilber by chance, and that he was not the target of a federal investigation.
asserted
he → report → investigation
Bystander footage of the shooting and its aftermath brought back vivid and unsettling memories of the July ICE shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
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footage → bring → Maine
In one video from Austin, a woman filming in her car stops when she hears sirens, screeching tires, and a car crash.
asserted
she → film → sirens
She begins to zoom in on the scene, where a scrambling ICE agent immediately shoots at the back right door of the car what sounds like four times in quick succession.
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what → begin → succession
Wilber’s car appears stationary, then when he is shot at it begins to lurch forward, recalling a similar scene when Durán was fatally shot in Maine.
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Durán → appear → Maine
A second video taken in the aftermath and from a much closer angle shows two bullet holes in the back right window of Wilber’s blue sedan, while he clutches near his shoulder.
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he → take → shoulder
Wilber’s lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has posted insistently since yesterday, detailing her mounting frustration at ICE’s apparent stonewalling of her and Wilber’s wife.
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lawyer → post → her
After the shooting, the pair visited hospitals, but were unable to determine his whereabouts as of early Monday morning.
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pair → visit → morning
Wilber’s wife slept with her phone underneath her pillow, hoping for an update on his status.
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wife → sleep → status
Lincoln-Goldfinch’s team told me she was finally able to speak to Wilber early Monday afternoon.
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she → tell → Wilber
He told her he is in South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas—135 miles from Austin.
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he → tell → Austin
Wilber said the bullet had not yet been removed from his back.
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bullet → say → back
“We have confirmation due to communication between Kate and Wilber that he’s in Pearsall for interrogation and still has the bullet lodged in his body.
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bullet → have → body
He’s received no pain medication and had to sleep on the floor,” her team told me.
asserted
team → receive → me
They also said Wilber has a son with a disability.
asserted
Wilber → say → disability
“The boy is here in Venezuela and needs his father.
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boy → need → father
The boy undergoes tests and therapies, which generate expenses, and it is his father who covers those costs.
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who → undergo → costs
It’s easy for cruelty to become policy, and policy to become background noise.
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policy → ’ → ?
This newsletter tries to make sure you can still hear it.
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you → try → it
Wilber told Lincoln-Goldfinch that he entered the country legally through a probation program seeking asylum.
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he → tell → asylum
That contradicts a statement tweeted out by the Department of Homeland Security, which called him an “illegal alien” who entered under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.
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who → contradict → removal
“The illegal alien’s condition is stable, and he is in federal custody pending removal,” the DHS statement said.
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statement → pende → removal
The official DHS account added that DHS’s investigative division, with help from the FBI, would investigate the shooting.
asserted
division → add → shooting
(This amounts to DHS investigating itself—where have we heard that before?)
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we → amount → that
Asked by Moreno whether Wilber had a criminal record, his mother said, “My son is a good kid, studious.
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son → ask → record
He went to high school in Venezuela and studied finance at the university.”
asserted
He → go → university
Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running for governor of Texas against incumbent Republican Greg Abbott, demanded that the ICE agent who shot Wilber be kept in Texas in an effort to prevent ICE moving the agent beyond the reach of state authorities.
asserted
ICE → run → authorities
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
