The hosts of MS NOW’s Morning Joe criticized the Donald Trump administration’s immigration policies following the latest ICE shooting. An ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man working as a DoorDash delivery driver, in Austin on September 20.
Morning Joe hosts criticize the Donald Trump administration’s response to ICE shootings after the latest incident in Austin, Texas
During the September 23 segment, host Mika Brzezinski asked, “When will the ICE shootings stop, given that there was one just days ago?” She went on to discuss Pérez’s shooting. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Pérez was in the U.S. illegally when an ICE officer shot him. His lawyer disputed the allegation.
Brzezinski said, “Setting aside the terror that ICE has brought upon cities and towns across the country, the lives they have disrupted, the children they have traumatized, the people they have, yes, disappeared. Set all that aside for a moment, if it’s possible. Focus on the people who were gunned down on American streets by government agents.”
NBC News reported that Pérez was hospitalized following the shooting. His attorney said authorities transferred him into immigration custody four hours after the incident and took him to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas. He remains in a detention center with a bullet in his back. Pérez’s immigration lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, filed a federal lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop his removal from the country. A judge ordered him to appear in person on September 30. He cannot be deported before the hearing.
The shooting followed several other fatal encounters. In July 2026, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. Earlier in the year, an ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7. Good was a U.S. citizen and mother of three. On January 24, federal immigration agents also shot and killed 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in the same city.
