In the wake of the officer-involved shooting of a Venezuelan illegal alien by an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer in Austin on Sunday, protesters painted threatening graffiti on overpass support pilings. The graffiti includes threats to kill President Donald Trump and ICE officers.
Apparently organized protests erupted in Austin shortly after an ICE officer shot and wounded a Venezuelan illegal alien, Breitbart Texas reported on Sunday. The Venezuelan man attempted to flee from the officer before being stopped. A video posted on social media shows the officer shooting into the vehicle, which attempted to drive off a second time.
On Sunday, a video which accidentally captured the shooting incident appeared on social media.
A second video appears to have been captured moments later from the opposite vantage point. In this video, the driver of the damaged blue sedan can be seen sitting in his seat while the ICE officer walks from his SUV back to the subject’s vehicle. The officer appears to be calling for assistance for the wounded man.
The blue sedan is heavily damaged on the passenger side, and what appear to be two bullet holes can be seen in the rear passenger window.
Another video, published on Tuesday, shows officers talking with the man, identified unofficially as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. He appears to have sustained a gunshot wound near the left side of his spine. An Austin Police Department officer appears to administer first aid while awaiting an ambulance.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded to the scene to maintain order as protests broke out. Protesters managed to spray-paint graffiti threatening, “Kill Donald Trump.” Another message threatens to murder ICE officers.
The Department of Homeland Security has not released any details on the matter other than its original statement acknowledging the shooting and stating the nationality and status of the Venezuelan administration. Breitbart Texas learned that the man illegally entered the U.S. during the Biden Border Crisis. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal, which the officer was attempting to enforce.
In an apparent reaction to the shooting, the Austin City Council is secretly moving to fund an $850,000 illegal aliens deportation defense fund, Breitbart reported on Tuesday. The council placed the matter on the “consent agenda” — a mechanism reserved for non-controversial measures passed in a single, block vote without public debate.
The total bill on the table pushes $854,872 in local public funds into municipal “deportation defense” initiatives.
According to city documentation obtained by Breitbart, the funding is explicitly earmarked to pay for legal defense strategies targeting federal immigration law enforcement.
The taxpayer-backed program covers:
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Direct Legal Representation: Retaining attorneys for both “detained and non-detained immigrants” facing active removal proceedings by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Pro Se Court Coaching: Funding legal workshops that train unrepresented immigrants on how to navigate federal immigration court, file motions, and meet procedural deadlines to avoid deportation.
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Work Authorization: Directing legal staff to secure Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for clients.
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Filing Fees: Covering federal immigration application and filing fees directly out of city coffers.
Austin Public Health, the lead municipal department administering the social service agreements, explicitly lists helping clients “obtain and maintain public benefits” as a key program success metric.
Austin’s quiet expansion of deportation defense programs comes as similar municipal initiatives across Texas face aggressive legal challenges from the state—and total shutdown.
In 2020, Harris County Commissioners created a similar “Immigrant Legal Services Fund,” funneling millions in county tax revenue and federal relief dollars to Houston-area legal non-profits to defend detained illegal immigrants.
That program hit a wall when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County, alleging the expenditure violated the “Gift Clause” of the Texas Constitution. State prosecutors argued that counties possess no statutory authority under Texas law to spend local taxpayer funds defending private individuals against federal civil immigration enforcement.
The legal fight reached a climax when the Supreme Court of Texas intervened, issuing an order that officially froze Harris County’s ability to disburse further funds into its immigrant legal defense pool. The high court cited serious constitutional doubts regarding whether local governments can lawfully spend taxpayer dollars to block federal law enforcement.
Despite the state supreme court’s binding precedent calling the constitutionality of county-funded deportation defense into question, Austin city officials continue to double down on funding local non-profits—using the silence of the consent agenda to keep the spending out of the public spotlight.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
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