Harris County DA charges ICE officer after Houston vehicle strike
Prosecutor Sean Teare says surveillance footage contradicts ICE's account of the Oct. 10 incident involving Miguel Parra Hernandez.
By Dominic Foster ·
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare charged ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales on Friday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, accusing him of driving an unmarked black vehicle into Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, as the man ran from a Houston operation on Oct. 10. Parra Hernandez was taken into custody after the encounter with a broken leg, according to prosecutors.
The charge places a federal immigration officer in criminal court at a time when few have faced prosecution for field actions during President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement push. Some other encounters remain under review. ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the indictment.
Teare's office says surveillance video shows a Jeep Cherokee crossing a median and moving toward Parra Hernandez while he flees. The footage does not capture the moment of impact because another vehicle blocks the view, but it shows the SUV close behind him and then shows Parra Hernandez on the ground. ICE has said Parra Hernandez stepped in front of the car and called allegations that the officer struck him deliberately false and reckless. Teare has said the video contradicts that account.
Questions also surround who the operation was meant to find. ICE released a photo of Jose Mendoza-Cervantes and identified him as the target that day, saying he entered a vehicle with Parra Hernandez. Family members of Parra Hernandez said they did not know the man. FIEL, a Houston immigrant rights group working with the family, said Mendoza-Cervantes' daughter told the organization her father died in 2017 and that his name is Jose Hector Jimenez. Teare's office said its investigation found no evidence the two men were in a vehicle together. ICE has not responded to the claim that the person sought in the operation died nearly a decade ago.
Teare said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has not cooperated with investigators and accused the agency of destroying evidence either intentionally or through gross negligence. He also said the ICE officer driving the SUV left before the vehicle could be impounded.
Parra Hernandez has lived in the United States for more than 30 years and was in the country without authorization, according to FIEL.
Teare's office is separately examining a July incident in which an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in his van. Teare said DHS ignored his requests for information in that case. DHS has said Salgado Araujo weaponized his vehicle and that the officer fired in self-defense; other passengers in the van have disputed that account. A witness to the July shooting was seen entering a courthouse area reserved for grand jury proceedings in September. Teere has not set a completion date for that investigation.
No court date for Morales has been announced.
