Harris County prosecutor weighs felony assault charge against ICE officer after vehicle collision
A Texas district attorney is considering filing aggravated assault charges against an ICE officer who ran over a man during a failed traffic stop, an incident captured on video.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said video from west Houston shows an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer’s unmarked SUV striking Miguel Parra-Hernandez as he fled across an empty parking lot on Saturday morning. The footage, Teare told NBC News, could support a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony that carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years.
Parra-Hernandez, 48, remains hospitalized with serious hip and leg injuries that his representatives say will require multiple surgeries. ICE acknowledged that he was not the target of the operation but noted his undocumented status.
According to the district attorney, the officer pursued Parra-Hernandez in violation of newly issued traffic-stop guidelines, then left the scene in the ICE vehicle before sheriff’s deputies arrived. Teare said ICE has not provided access to the vehicle’s data recorder, prompting his office to draft a search warrant.
Teare added that two other individuals, believed to be from a separate operation, were in the back of the ICE vehicle at the time of the pursuit and that his office is working to keep them in the country as material witnesses. The prosecutor’s office has also set up a portal for the public to submit additional videos or photographs of the incident without requiring citizenship or immigration information.
ICE declined to comment directly to the Guardian. An agency spokesperson later said the operation’s intended target was another undocumented man, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who has prior arrests and a final removal order. Parra-Hernandez’s lawyer, Kim Bruno, said her client fled because he did not recognize the dark-colored vehicle and has no criminal record. An ICE spokesperson described the allegations of intentional striking as “reckless and false” and “disgusting smears … peddled by the media,” asserting that ICE agents are held to high standards of professionalism and integrity.