Eleven days after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez finally had surgery to remove the bullet in his upper back last Thursday, Oct. 1, according to one of his attorneys, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.
Garces Perez had told press during a Sept. 21 press conference that the bullet hadn’t been removed during his Sept. 20 visit to the hospital because it was too close to his spine. Austin’s Dell Seton Medical Center had released Garces Perez into ICE custody only four hours after being shot with the bullet still in his body.
Now, Dell Seton’s actions on Sept. 20 are being questioned by Austin-area Catholic advocates and the founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, attorney Jim Harrington. In an Oct. 5 letter, after Garces Perez’s bullet had been removed, they asked the hospital why Garces Perez was released into immigration detention before his medical treatment was fully completed…