ICE Eyes 'Mobile' Detention Sites as Backlash Grows Over Agent's Shooting of Austin Delivery Driver
Days after a federal agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan DoorDash driver during a traffic stop in Austin, ICE is quietly exploring mobile detention facilities as part of a broader expansion — even as the shooting fuels new questions about oversight.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is exploring "mobile detention facilities" as it quietly expands its detention system nationwide, according to reporting out Saturday — an expansion effort playing out against the backdrop of continued fallout from an ICE agent's shooting of a Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin less than a week earlier.
The detention push and the Austin shooting are separate developments, but both are part of the same story of an agency rapidly scaling up enforcement while facing mounting scrutiny over how it operates, according to NPR's immigration briefing.
The shooting that won't fade
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was delivering food for DoorDash on Sept. 21 when a traffic stop by ICE agents in North Austin ended with him shot in the torso; his attorney says he was shot in the back. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, according to CNN. Garces Perez had a final order of removal, but the shooting itself has drawn condemnation from local officials, with one Austin official saying he was "very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE."
AT LEAST THE THIRD SHOOTING BY IMMIGRATION AGENTS IN TEXAS SINCE TRUMP'S SECOND TERM BEGAN
Adding to the controversy: the officer who fired the shot was not wearing a body camera, a gap that CBS News reports is likely to intensify scrutiny of the incident. The Department of Homeland Security says it is leading an investigation into the officer with help from the FBI. Protesters gathered near the intersection where the shooting happened within hours, some carrying flags in solidarity with Garces Perez.
It's at least the third shooting involving immigration agents in Texas since President Trump began his second term, part of a count that has reached at least 20 people shot nationwide by on-duty ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents during this administration, eight of them fatally, according to NPR's original reporting on the shooting.
Against that backdrop, ICE's interest in mobile detention units signals the agency intends to keep expanding capacity rather than slow down, even as the Austin case works its way through an active federal investigation. What consequences, if any, the officer involved will face remains an open question.