AUSTIN — Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was completing a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday, Sept. 20, when he was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and taken into federal custody, according to Perez’s attorney and DoorDash. The encounter has drawn attention to how app-based delivery companies vet workers who are classified as independent contractors rather than employees. DoorDash says prospective Dashers must complete an identity check and background screening. Applicants must provide a valid U.S. government-issued identification document and take a selfie that is matched against the photo on the ID. The company lists driver’s licenses, state identification cards, passports, passport cards, permanent resident cards and employment authorization cards among the documents it accepts. Social Security cards, expired identification, non-U.S. identification, temporary paper driver’s licenses, photocopies, screenshots and other non-government documents are not accepted. DoorDash also requires a Social Security number to complete its background-check process. The screening includes a criminal-history report and, for drivers using a motor vehicle, a motor-vehicle report. People with valid employment authorization may be eligible to obtain a Social Security number through the federal application process. The company periodically asks workers to submit another selfie to confirm their identity. DoorDash said in 2024 that more than 150,000 Dashers were required to complete that re-verification each week. But the company’s publicly available signup information and independent-contractor agreement do not specifically say that DoorDash verifies a worker’s immigration status or current authorization to work in the United States. Instead, the agreement says contractors must confirm that they meet all legal requirements and hold the licenses and permits needed to perform delivery services. That distinction matters because federal employment-verification rules can apply differently to independent contractors than to traditional employees. The classification leaves a central question unresolved for workers and customers alike: whether a platform’s identity and background checks also establish that a contractor is legally authorized to work, and whether that authorization is checked again later. DoorDash was asked whether it independently verifies work authorization and whether it periodically rechecks that status. The company was also asked whether it retains GPS information connected to deliveries and when it provides that data to law enforcement. No response had been received by publication time. Uber, Grubhub and Instacart were also asked about their worker-verification requirements. No responses had been received from those companies by publication time. Perez’s case comes as Austin officials and community groups call for scrutiny of the ICE shooting. His arrest while carrying out app-based work has added a labor and accountability dimension to a confrontation that is already raising questions about federal immigration enforcement in the city.