Marisol García Alcántara, 37, filed a claim Wednesday with the Border Patrol, as it is necessary prior to filing a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona, next year.

García was shot during the summer of 2021 in Nogales, Arizona, on June 16, the bullet entering her head above her left eye. Fragments are still in her brain, placing her at risk of seizures. She says that she still experiences memory loss, dizzy spells, and headaches over half a year later.

“I want to know why, why did they do that and why me?” García said during an interview with AP last week in her family home outside Mexico City.

“I am looking for justice. I want an apology from that person and help for medical care and medicine because I can’t work,” she said.

García went to the U.S. to visit her mother and look for work to support her three daughters, she said, according to the AP.

After entering the U.S., she was riding in an SUV with a group of people in Nogales, sitting behind the driver. She heard a siren, experienced pain in her head, and had blurry vision while people in the car tended to her wound.

She was taken to a hospital close by, then a helicopter flew her to another one Phoenix where she underwent surgery that night. She was taken to a detention center for several weeks after spending two days in Phoenix until she was returned to Mexico, García said.

Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said the agency could not comment because the shooting was still being investigated internally by its Office of Professional Responsibility. It will also be reviewed by the CBP’s National Use of Force Review Board.

The agent’s identity has not been revealed.

García’s legal team have said the Border Patrol is not in a position to impartially investigate the June 16 shooting. They point to longstanding concerns over Border Patrol units known as Critical Incident Teams, which collect information about agents’ use of force.

Detractors call them “shadow units” that may impede investigations into whether agents’ actions are justified.

Attorney Eugene Iredale, who is representing García, called the teams “the administrative equivalent of an anti-internal affairs squad designed to protect the agency” from liability.

The Southern Border Communities Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group, on Wednesday reiterated calls for a congressional investigation into the shooting and the Critical Incident Teams.

“This incident is not unique,” said Representative Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who represents southern Arizona and supports such an inquiry. “This is a pattern that needs to be dealt with.”

CBP said the Critical Incident Teams do not lead investigations, but rather collect evidence for other agencies, in this case under the direction and supervision of the FBI.

García said American officials never asked her about the shooting.

“No one investigated,” she said. “I returned to Mexico without making a declaration.”

The announcement of the claim comes just days after Chris Magnus, the reform-minded Tucson police chief, was sworn in as CBP commissioner. Magnus updated Tucson’s use-of-force policies and made many other changes during his time with the department.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.