Fatal Shootings Raise Questions Over Expanding US Immigration Operation

(MENAFN) A series of shootings and deaths involving people held in federal custody is drawing increased attention to the Trump administration’s expanding immigration enforcement campaign, with concerns focusing on the use of force, detention conditions and the way related cases are investigated.

The latest incident involves Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20.

Federal prosecutors later charged Perez on Sept. 29 with assaulting, resisting, interfering with and impeding a federal officer. His detention hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.

Perez has challenged parts of the government’s account of the incident and remains detained, with a bullet still lodged in his back, according to his attorney.

Since Trump began his immigration crackdown last year, immigration agents have opened fire during at least 31 separate incidents, according to reports based on data from a US gun violence monitoring organization.

Those incidents resulted in nine deaths and 15 injuries.

The nonprofit group also recorded 49 additional cases in which immigration agents reportedly pointed guns at bystanders, protesters or other individuals in circumstances it characterized as “questionable.”

Deaths involving immigration detention have further intensified scrutiny of federal enforcement practices. Government records show that 56 people died while in ICE custody between Jan. 23, 2025, and Aug. 23, 2026.

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