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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 23, 2026· Updated

An ICE Officer Shoots a DoorDash Driver in North Austin, Then Agents Move Him Into Federal Custody Before His Wife Can See Him — Greg Casar Says "The Horror Has Come to Our City," and Austin's Mayor Says "Austinites Have a Right to Know What Happened"

Just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026, an ICE officer shot and wounded Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, a Venezuelan DoorDash driver, during a vehicle stop and pursuit in North Austin. ICE said it had targeted his car over a license-plate check tied to a final removal order; his attorney says he entered the country legally and held a valid work permit. Garcés Perez called his wife at 12:30 p.m. to tell her he had been shot. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, then moved by federal agents to an undisclosed location — without being allowed to see his wife first — before landing in ICE custody pending removal. Rep. Greg Casar posted the same morning that "the horror has come to our city," and hours later sent DHS a formal letter demanding release of the unedited body-camera footage, preservation of evidence, and a briefing for Congress by September 28. Rep. Joaquin Castro said "Trump has allowed ICE to flood our streets and put our communities in harms way again and again and Governor Abbott is complicit every time." Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said "Austinites have a right to know what happened." Texas Senate candidate James Talarico said past incidents show "this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts," and called for a full independent investigation with all footage released. DHS, without naming Garcés Perez, said he had a final removal order and entered during the Biden administration; Homeland Security Investigations, with FBI assistance, is leading the review.

“If you saw Wilbur, just like if you saw anybody that had been shot three days ago, you would say this person needs a doctor, not a deportation, or a detention center. Why was he taken from the hospital?”
Gregorio Casar (D-TX) · Sep 23, 2026

ICE Signs a $16.7 Million No-Bid Contract for 6,000 Pairs of Gloves That Deliver Electric Shocks — Sixteen Senators Ask Why Its Existing Tools Are Not Enough, and the Border Czar Answers "You Can’t Just Go From 0 to 100"

On August 10, 2026 the Department of Homeland Security published a notice that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intended to spend up to $20 million on the CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E. — for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — a patrol glove made by Compliant Technologies LLC of Kentucky that functions normally until an officer switches it into "electrical mode," at which point contact with exposed skin delivers a charge of up to 380 volts. ICE signed the contract on Wednesday, August 26 and posted the award on Thursday, August 27: $16.7 million, no bid, for 6,000 pairs at roughly $2,495 apiece. The agency wrote in its procurement documents that it "does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amidst unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents." A DHS spokesperson said ICE is "constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field." The purchase went through over two rounds of congressional objection. On August 20, Homeland Security Committee Democrats Bennie Thompson, Lou Correa and Shri Thanedar wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to stop the procurement, citing what they called a pattern of DHS personnel permanently injuring and nearly killing people with weapons already labeled "less-lethal." On August 27 — the day the award posted — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto led fifteen colleagues in a letter to Acting ICE Director David Venturella putting more than thirty questions to the agency about protocols, training, safety limits and accountability. The signers included Angus King, the letter's only non-Democrat. White House border czar Tom Homan had defended the device on Fox & Friends on August 13, framing it as a rung on the use-of-force ladder below lethal weapons. The device arrives against the record this site has already documented: fatal ICE shootings in Houston and Maine, an ICE agent charged with firing into a Minneapolis home, and a man in Arlington, Virginia tasered on his way to work who woke with a brain bleed.

“We write to express deep concern about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver electric shocks. If ICE proceeds with purchasing $20 million worth of electric-shock gloves, Congress needs a clear understanding of the device’s safety and authorized uses.”
Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) · Aug 27, 2026

Aug 20, 2026· Updated

A 4-Foot-11 Man Walking to Work in Arlington Is Tasered by ICE and Wakes Up With a Brain Bleed — Then the Ankle Monitor ICE Fitted Him With Blocks the MRI His Doctors Ordered

At about 6:30 a.m. on August 11, 2026, José Mejía Hernández, 45, was walking to work in Arlington, Virginia when two trucks pulled up and men got out and ran at him. He did not know who they were, according to his attorney, and he ran. He believes he was hit in the back with a stun device. He remembers nothing after that. He woke in a hospital with a brain hemorrhage, blackened eyes, facial lacerations and cuts requiring stitches — and two ICE officers at his bedside, who his lawyer Carlos Jurado says never left, meaning he was never given a private moment with his doctors. He was discharged within 72 hours, fitted with a GPS ankle monitor and handed immigration forms. When doctors ordered an MRI more than a week later to measure the bleeding and swelling in his brain, the metal ankle monitor made the scan impossible, and ICE refused to remove it. "Mr. Mejia Hernandez is 4'11," Jurado said. "He's 125 pounds. This man is not a Division 1 athlete." The Department of Homeland Security disputes the account. It said Mejía Hernández "attempted to flee from the scene requiring ICE to use necessary force to gain control of the situation," and called it "FALSE" that he was unconscious and woke in a hospital bed, saying officers rendered aid and asked the responsive individual if he was okay. The incident occurred a day after an ICE agent pointed a loaded gun at U.S. citizen Carolina Molina a few miles away in Falls Church — an encounter her dashcam contradicted DHS's account of — and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said he was "certainly very concerned that it's the same group of ICE agents running the corridor along Columbia Pike." Beyer called the injuries "extremely disturbing" and told constituents to "exercise extreme caution," saying ICE agents in Northern Virginia "are disappearing people, and they are all too frequently becoming out of control or violent." Arlington's elected prosecutor and county board chair both said publicly that they were investigating what they could. Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said "no one is above the law — not any individual, not law enforcement, and not federal officials." County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said ICE does not communicate with the county about its operations at all.

“We’re certainly very concerned that it’s the same group of ICE agents running the corridor along Columbia Pike.”
Don Beyer (D-VA) · Aug 20, 2026

Aug 19, 2026· Updated

ICE Agent Points a Gun at a U.S. Citizen in Northern Virginia; Her Dashcam Video Contradicts the DHS Account

On Monday, August 10, 2026, ICE officers conducting what the Department of Homeland Security described as a targeted enforcement operation in the Bailey's Crossroads area near Falls Church, Virginia, drew a firearm on Carolina Molina — a U.S. citizen, Northern Virginia native and licensed professional counselor who performs psychological evaluations in immigration cases. Molina says she was driving between immigration attorneys' offices dropping off business cards when she saw agents making arrests, and that she shouted at them from her car. DHS said in a statement that an "anti-ICE agitator began to drive her car in circles around our ICE officers and then attempted to harm officers by weaponizing her vehicle against them — all in an attempt to help illegal aliens get away," and that officers stopped her vehicle fearing for their safety. Molina's dashcam footage, which she released and which went viral on August 12, does not show her driving at the officers; a masked agent is seen approaching her window with a gun pointed at her, telling her "you almost ran us over." Molina was not arrested or charged. Fairfax County's Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez said the federal account "does not match the video." Northern Virginia's House delegation responded within a day. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-8), whose district includes Falls Church, said his office had contacted Molina and that he would demand "answers and consequences." Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11), who represents most of Fairfax County, called it a product of ICE's broken accountability system. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10), in whose district Molina lives, tied the encounter to a national pattern of armed confrontations between ICE agents and American citizens. The incident landed as ICE was promising to have every field officer equipped with a body camera by the end of August — a rollout already under scrutiny over provisions letting agency leadership withhold footage after serious injuries or deaths in custody.

“Carolina Molina is not only a constituent, she’s a mother. She’s a wife, she’s a daughter, she’s a sister. If not for her dash cam on her car, I don’t know what would have happened to Carolina Molina. In so many situations there is not a camera, and it’s the ICE officers sometimes making up stories about the person they have harassed or intimidated or pulled a gun on.”
Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) · Aug 19, 2026

ICE Moves to Buy Up to $20 Million of Electric Shock Gloves, Drawing Denunciations From a Dozen Congressional Democrats

On Monday, August 10, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security posted a procurement notice signaling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to buy thousands of "Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter" devices — marketed as the G.L.O.V.E., or CTG-5 — from Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, on a no-bid basis. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch, at which point they deliver a painful electric shock on contact. Reporting by Axios and CBS News on August 12 put the value of the planned purchase at $10 million to $20 million, with deliveries to be completed by the end of March. ICE and DHS have described the device as a "conductive distraction and de-escalation device." A DHS spokesperson said ICE "is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country," and the agency said its officers "regularly receive ongoing use of force training." Within 48 hours at least a dozen congressional Democrats — four senators and eight House members — publicly condemned the plan, most of them on social media. Several tied the purchase directly to the roughly $70 billion in ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding Congress approved in June over Democratic objections, and several used the occasion to renew calls to abolish the agency. Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) had introduced the Melt ICE Act in January to dismantle DHS. No congressional Republican was on record defending or criticizing the purchase in the first days of coverage.

“This is just not the government people want. A government so sadistic and cruel that it delights in using your hard-earned tax dollars to buy gloves that shock people upon contact.”
Chris Murphy (D-CT) · Aug 13, 2026