For the past week, news and headlines across Texas have talked about Wilbur Garces Perez, a Venezuelan man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
\nPerez was shot in the back by ICE agents on September 20 near U.S. Highway 183 and Anderson Road while delivering meals for DoorDash. According to reporting from KUT, and videos released from the Austin Police Department, Perez was shot after a pursuit of some kind. Details of exactly what happened between the pursuit and the shooting still remain unclear. The ICE agents involved were not wearing body cameras. Perez marks the third person shot by ICE in Texas.
\nWhile the case unfolds, various terms about immigration enforcement have come up: 287g agreements, ERO, CBP-1, SIU. Let’s break down what these mean and how they’re impacting people in Rundberg and Austin.
\nERO and HSI
\nIn dashcam footage released by APD of Perez’s traffic stop, a man can be seen wearing a vest that says ‘ERO,’ but across other immigration enforcement operations, you might also see agents with HSI and CBP. But what are they and are they different from ICE?
\nDenise Gilman is the co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. She says the differences come down to where they operate.
\n“When you hear CBP, Border Protection, Border Patrol, it really is mostly at the border,” Gilman says. “ICE is what you think of more as the interior, inside the United States immigration enforcement body, and it has several different sub-components.”
\nERO and HSI are branches of ICE, but they do different things. HSI stands for homeland security investigations. They focus on criminal cases like trafficking, narcotics and cybercrime.
\nERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations. This branch focuses on finding and detaining people who are undocumented. They manage a program that’s also been mentioned in the news: 287g agreements.
\n287g Agreements
\n287g is a program that lets state and local law enforcement work with federal immigration officials. There are three types of 287g agreements: the taskforce model, the jail service model, or the warrant service officer program. The first two only kick in when someone has been booked into jail. Deputized officers can serve administrative warrants. But the warrant service officer program lets deputized officers question people during regular police work, like traffic stops.\nThe 287g program has been around since the mid-90s, but a recent state law makes it mandatory for Texas sheriffs to join. Texas Senate Bill 8 requires county sheriffs to enter into a 287g agreement with ICE or face legal penalties.
\nWilliamson County has signed a warrant service officer program. Bastrop and Caldwell have a taskforce agreement in place. Travis and Hays County haven’t signed an agreement as of publishing. They have until the end of the year to sign one.
\nCBP-One
\nIt’s been reported by news outlets and Perez’s immigration lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, that Perez entered the country through a CBP-One Visa. But what is it?
\nIn 2020, the Biden administration expanded an existing Customs and Border Patrol app to let migrants seeking entry to the U.S. schedule appointments at border entry points. By 2023 this was the main way asylum seekers could enter the country. The Biden administration issued a rule that anyone who entered without using CBP-One would not be granted asylum.
\nIf applicants were able to get a slot, they would be vetted by federal officials. People granted a CPB-One visa were allowed to enter and work in the U.S. When Trump returned to office in 2024, he ended the program and revoked the status of anyone who had used the app to enter the country.
\nICE Presence in Austin
\nThe shooting of Perez raised concerns about ICE’s presence in Austin. While this isn’t the first ICE incident in Austin, this is the first time ICE agents have shot and wounded someone in Austin.
\nBut residents and community leaders have been sounding the alarm for months now about immigration enforcement in the community. Across Texas, there’s been an increase in the number of arrests and detentions.
\nICE divides the state by area of responsibility, or AOR. Austin, and much of Central Texas, falls under the San Antonio AOR. This area has seen massive increases in street arrests since August. It’s currently 3rd in the nation.
\nAccording to data from the Deportation Data Project, arrests jumped from 662 in January 2025 to over 3,000 arrests in July 2026. That's more than a 300% increase.
\nThis data comes from the Deportation Data Project, a joint effort from UCLA and UC Berkeley to obtain immigration enforcement data. You can access this data online and look through it yourself to see what’s happening in your neighborhood.
\nWith these increases in arrests comes an increase of cases to immigration courts. Gilman says there’s not enough attorneys to take on this large influx of cases, so many people are having to defend themselves in court.
\n“There are 3 million cases pending in immigration court. This administration is trying really hard to do all kinds of things to move those cases quickly, holding mega-masters where 200 people are in immigration court all at once,” Gilman says. “So on any given day, there might be 600 cases having master calendar hearings in immigration court in San Antonio. There are not enough attorneys paid or certainly free or low cost to represent that kind of number of cases.”
\nSeveral arrests Rundberg have made headlines: a family who was detained after a traffic stop by Dobie Middle School, a teacher arrested in the middle of the school year, a mother who was deported after she called 911 during a domestic disturbance, a high school senior picked up after a shift at a fast food place.
\nWhat’s next for Perez?
\nOn top of his immigration case, Perez was charged earlier this week with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding a federal officer. If convicted, Perez could face 20 years in prison. After a federal court hearing in Austin on Wednesday, he remains in court custody and will not return to the detention center he was held at. His cases are pending.
\nPerez also received surgery on Thursday, October 1, about 11 days after being shot. His lawyer said on social media that he's recovering and will remain in federal custody.
\nResidents have protested against his shooting, calling for ICE to leave Austin. Local leaders have called for accountability and an end to 287g agreements.
\nImmigration news is constantly changing. If you have any questions, let us know.
\nResources:
\nCheck out Austin Vida’s, a nonprofit news organization for Austin’s Latine community, bilingual Know Your Rights Resource Guide\nThey also shared
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