On September 20th in Austin, Texas, ICE agents who currently remain unidentified shot Wilber Garces Perez in the back as he tried to flee from a “targeted immigration operation”. Within hours of being brutalized, he was sent to a torture camp in Pearsall, Texas without surgery or any kind of adequate medical attention, still carrying in his body the piece of lead that tore a hole through his flesh and came to rest within inches of his spine.
The ICE agents who shot Wilber Perez should be facing attempted murder charges, instead, their identities remain hidden from the public, and an investigation is underway to justify their actions and shield them from accountability. But we know we don’t need an investigation,
WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
ICE and local law enforcement quickly claimed after the incident that there was a foot chase that ended in Wilber’s arrest, but soon after, an up-close video from a courageous immigrant woman clearly shows Wilber being removed from his vehicle in immense pain, and his shirt being cut open to reveal a gunshot wound.
This is exactly what they did to Johan Sebastian Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo when they were murdered by ICE, the state tried to push the narrative that they were using their vehicles to assault ICE agents, and for Lorenzo they tried to say he had drugs in his vehicle. Now the same thing is happening to Wilber, ICE has charged him with a single count of resisting and assaulting a federal officer alleging that he hit an agent with the side view mirror of his car.
Every time ICE has gunned someone down in the street in the recent past, a narrative is constructed in which ICE agents fear for their lives and use deadly force to protect themselves. It should be obvious at this point, with so many cases bearing the same broad plot points and the state sponsored narratives becoming stale, that ICE agents are willfully placing themselves in situations in which they can plausibly claim self-defense in order to carry out executions in broad daylight. The reality is that these ICE agents are never actually in harm’s way, as was the case when they executed Alex Pretti while he was pinned down in the street after disarming him.
Even if Wilber did flee in his vehicle it was a righteous decision given the way ICE has not only brutalized and murdered people during traffic stops, but with also knowing that being kidnapped means spending an unknown amount of time in a concertation camp. It is well known and reported that these camps have food and water filled with worms, that sexual abuse is rampant, and that people are treated like cattle all stuffed into small containment rooms.
This attempted murder by ICE also shows us the way local law enforcement are the other side of the same coin. ICE’s function is to control and instill fear in the immigrant population in order to maintain a flow of cheap labor inside and outside of U.S. borders, all while local law enforcement keeps anyone else in line that gets in the way of their racist capitalist order.
Not only does police and DPS hand people over to ICE with no sweat on their brow, they help repress, brutalize and arrest people who are bold and brave enough resist and go out into the streets to end business as usual when ICE is killing and kidnapping people left and right. Police and DPS are well known to brutalize protestors and try to place bogus charges on them to help kill the flames of resistance.
We need to build up the movement, even in the face of repression. People need to be out in the streets, calling out ICE’s lies and brutality and connecting this fight into the movement against police brutality. We invite anyone who wants to show out for Wilber and for anyone who has been killed or brutalized by law enforcement to join in on October 22nd, National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality.
October 22nd, known as O22, has taken place since 1996. Formed by families of those killed by police and activists that want to see an end to this oppression by any means necessary. A pig is a pig regardless of the agency, with their main goal being to target the Black, Latino, and Indigenous population that have the most to win in resisting their violent oppressors.
Email us for help in setting up an O22 protest in your area, we must create the crisis necessary to free Wilber, free all of the kidnapped, and end police brutality.
JUSTICE FOR ALL STOLEN LIVES!
JAIL KILLER COPS AND ICE THUGS!
¡LIBERTAD PARA LOS SECUESTRADOS!
¡ALTO CON LAS DEPORTACIONES!
