ICE agent indicted after allegedly weaponizing SUV against Texas construction worker
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A federal immigration agent faces an aggravated assault charge after an SUV strike in Houston left a construction worker badly injured, intensifying criticism that ICE’s aggressive tactics are endangering communities.
A federal immigration agent was indicted on Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after his unmarked SUV struck and seriously injured Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, in Houston on Oct. 10. Prosecutors said the agent, Mario Alberto Morales, 33, deliberately veered into the man, causing multiple leg fractures and a hip injury.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the indictment raises serious questions about the training Morales received after being hired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August 2025. Teare added that the incident reflects broader concerns about ICE tactics in the community and the climate of fear those tactics create.
"Their behavior and the fear that’s being instilled in such a big, vibrant group of people, of Harris County residents, is objectively making us all less safe," Teare told reporters.
Surveillance video shown at a news conference captured Parra Hernandez, a Mexican construction worker with no criminal record, running across a restaurant parking lot as the SUV pursued a pickup truck. The vehicle swerved and ran him over. A 911 call recorded Morales claiming the man ran in front of his vehicle.
ICE issued a statement denying intentional wrongdoing, calling the allegations "reckless and false" and describing the indictment as a political maneuver by local officials. The agency also asserted that only federal authorities have jurisdiction to investigate its officers, even as critics say that posture shields abuse from accountability.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said investigators discovered two handcuffed detainees were in the back of Morales’s SUV at the time of the crash, noting the situation would have been unsafe for anyone involved.
The district attorney’s office is also reviewing recent ICE actions in the area, including a July shooting of an immigrant in Houston and a January incident in Minnesota involving another ICE officer. Lawyers for Parra Hernandez, who remains in ICE custody, said he faces a lengthy recovery and pending deportation proceedings.