Reports: ICE agent who shot man in North Austin wasn't wearing a body camera

Reports: ICE agent who shot man in North Austin wasn't wearing a body camera

The ICE officer who shot a man in North Austin on Sunday was not wearing his agency-issued body camera, multiple national media outlets reported, citing anonymous sources.

Why it matters: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security pledged this summer to outfit all ICE agents with the cameras amid several fatal shootings and other use-of-force incidents nationwide.

  • It wasn't clear why the agent wasn't wearing a camera. Body camera footage from another ICE agent in the same vehicle did not capture the moment of the shooting, according to the reports.

    • Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia has granted an emergency order to temporarily block the deportation of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, who is from Venezuela.

  • The San Antonio-based judge ordered that Garces Perez be present at the first hearing in the case, scheduled for Sept. 30.

    • Between the lines: Images released by the law firm representing Garces Perez show in graphic detail the immediate aftermath of the shooting, including a bullet hole in his upper back.

    The latest: Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, his Austin-based lawyer, said that she met with Garces Perez Tuesday via video after he returned to a South Texas detention facility from a San Antonio hospital.

  • The gunshot fractured his clavicle and he continues to experience significant swelling and pain, she said.
  • He is receiving Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain and is in an isolated room with a flat bed that cannot be medically adjusted, she said.

    • The other side: "This person is an illegal alien who has no legal status to be here and has been given some of the best medical care he's ever received in his life," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement Tuesday, adding that Garces Perez "had no valid work permit, had no protective status."

    Catch up quick: DHS officials said in July that ICE body cameras were being deployed nationwide.

  • "ICE will ensure each arrest team has an individual wearing a body camera," a DHS official told Axios, saying it's a "top priority for DHS."
  • The comments followed a fatal shooting in Houston earlier this year, in which agents were not wearing body cameras.

    • What's next: Travis County District Attorney José Garza sent a letter Tuesday to Mullin asking that Garces Perez remain in the United States pending an investigation into the shooting.

    Yes, but: "ICE will not be slowing down nor leaving Austin," Mullin said on Tuesday.