On the morning of October 10, 2026, during an immigration traffic stop in northwest Houston, an ICE vehicle struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, who had fled on foot, breaking his leg, the AP reported. ICE has conceded he was not the target of the stop, the Guardian reported.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare opened an independent investigation. “This was an intentional striking and running over of the person by the vehicle, and in that case, that is an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Texas,” he said, according to NBC News. He said his office was drafting a search warrant when the officer who had been driving “jumped back into the car and drove it away from the scene,” and that “ICE removed the vehicle that struck this individual from the scene over the objections of the DA's office and the sheriff's department.” A charging decision “is going to come in a relatively short order,” Teare told ABC13. The AP noted that the available footage does not show the moment of impact.
An ICE spokesperson said that “allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are RECKLESS and FALSE.” The Guardian reported that the pursuit appeared to contravene new DHS guidance on vehicle stops (see Federal Immigration Officers Have Fatally Shot at Least 10 People Since Trump's Second Term Began).
Update (October 30, 2026): A Harris County grand jury on October 30 indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales, 33, on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, over the October 10 collision, Teare and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced. NBC News reported it is the first indictment of an immigration agent in Texas; Houston Public Media noted it came 20 days after the incident. Morales had not been taken into custody, and Teare said his office had been in touch with his lawyer.
“The evidence that we have in this case is as clear as any that I've ever prosecuted or investigated,” Teare said. At his news conference he played body camera video that, NBC reported, “showed the officer snapping the steering wheel left and seconds later a wail can immediately be heard”; on it the officer says, “I was coming in and I hit him with the car.” “An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,” Teare said, according to NBC. Teare also played portions of the 911 call, on which, Houston Public Media reported, Morales can be heard saying Parra-Hernandez is “fine.”
An ICE spokesperson said the indictment “is nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians” and asserted that “federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other federal agencies.” Teare called that claim “patently false.” A senior DHS official had told NBC News earlier in October that an officer was placed on administrative leave after the collision. Parra is at a rehab facility in ICE custody, Teare said.