ICE Officer Indicted for 'Running Over Man With SUV' — as Agency Faces Mounting Questions Over Claim Suspect Was Dead
The district attorney accused ICE and DHS of withholding evidence; ICE called the indictment a political stunt.
Oct. 30 2026, Published 4:54 p.m. ET
A Texas grand jury indicted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Mario Alberto Morales on Friday after prosecutors accused him of striking 48-year-old construction worker Miguel Parra Hernandez with an unmarked SUV during an Oct. 10 pursuit in Houston.
Morales, 33, faces a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The indictment follows the release of surveillance and body camera footage that Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said contradicts ICE's account that Parra Hernandez ran in front of Morales' vehicle.
The case has also raised questions about the person ICE said agents were trying to arrest, with his family and an immigrant rights group saying he died in 2017.
Video At Center Of Assault Case
Prosecutors allege Morales ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez with an unmarked SUV during a Houston pursuit.
Teare presented footage at a Friday news conference that appears to show Morales pursuing two men who had fled a pickup truck. Surveillance video shows an SUV moving toward Parra Hernandez as he ran through a parking lot before striking him.
Body camera footage released by prosecutors captures Morales getting out of the SUV after the collision.
He is heard saying, "He got hit with a car, bro," and later, "I was coming in, and I hit him with the car." Teare called the evidence clear and said his office believed the collision was intentional.
Morales' attorney, David Lindenmuth, has denied that his client committed a crime and described the collision as an accident. He also accused Teare of pursuing the indictment for political reasons.
Morales was not in custody Friday and was expected to surrender after the case was assigned to a court.
Worker Faces Serious Injuries
Parra Hernandez, 48, suffered severe leg fractures and a hip injury and remains in ICE custody.
Parra Hernandez suffered a broken leg, fractured ankle and other injuries that required multiple surgeries, according to reporting from the Houston Chronicle. He remains in federal custody while recovering at a rehabilitation facility.
Teare has said Parra Hernandez had lived in the Houston area for more than 30 years and had no criminal record or active deportation order. His family and advocates have said he was not the intended target of the operation.
ICE has maintained that agents were pursuing another man and that Parra Hernandez was not intentionally struck. The Department of Homeland Security has characterized allegations that Morales deliberately hit him as "reckless and false."
ICE Target Reportedly Died In 2017
Harris County prosecutors say video contradicts ICE’s claim that Parra Hernandez ran in front of the SUV.
ICE said the operation was aimed at Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, whom the agency described as having a criminal record and an active deportation order. Officials said they believed he was in the same vehicle as Parra Hernandez.
That account has come under scrutiny. FIEL Houston said the daughter of a man whose photograph ICE released recognized him as her father, Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza, and said he died in 2017.
A death certificate was reportedly provided to the New York Times, while other reporting has noted that the connection between Jimenez Mendoza and the Mendoza-Cervantes name has not been independently established in every record.
Teare's office has also said its investigation found no evidence that Parra Hernandez and the man ICE identified as Mendoza-Cervantes were together in the vehicle. ICE has not publicly resolved the questions surrounding the identity of its stated target.
Prosecutors and ICE Clash Over Inquiry
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ICE said agents were seeking Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, but a death certificate reportedly shows he died in 2017.
The indictment has intensified a dispute over whether Harris County authorities can investigate and prosecute a federal immigration officer for conduct allegedly committed while on duty.
ICE has argued that federal officers acting in their official capacity can only be investigated by federal agencies and called the indictment a political stunt.
Teare has also criticized ICE's handling of evidence and witnesses.
Prosecutors previously said the agency removed Morales' vehicle from the scene before investigators could examine it, while Teare said material witnesses were moved out of the area before his office could complete interviews.
The case is an unusual state prosecution of a federal immigration officer during President Donald Trump's expanded immigration enforcement efforts.
It also comes months after ICE agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, another incident that remains under investigation and has drawn scrutiny of federal immigration operations in the city.
