Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said this week that his office will investigate why an immigration agent driving an SUV ran over a 48-year-old man during an enforcement operation on Saturday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that ICE officers were searching for Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who had a deportation order, around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
ICE said that Miguel Parra-Hernandez was in the same vehicle as Mendoza-Cervantes, got out and ran in front of an ICE vehicle. But Kim Bruno, the attorney for Parra-Hernandez, said her client doesn’t know Mendoza-Cervantes and that he was not with him on Saturday.
“As ICE officers attempted to apprehend the illegal aliens, Miguel Parra-Hernandez ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck,” according to a statement sent to The Texas Tribune on Saturday by TIm Oberle, a spokesperson for ICE in Houston.
Surveillance footage captured on a nearby camera depicts two men getting out of a white pickup truck and running in different directions through a parking lot. The footage also shows a black SUV pursue one of the men from behind as he ran from it. Teare said in an interview with KTRK-TV that he believes the ICE agent intentionally hit Parra-Hernandez. He added that “a charging decision is going to come in a relatively short order in this case.”
“ICE tactics are growing more brazen and more dangerous,” Teare said in a statement. “High-speed pursuits and aggressive operations on busy streets put everyone at risk. No badge puts anyone above the law in Harris County and we will continue to follow evidence wherever it may lead.”
Mendoza-Cervantes, who ICE said has been previously arrested in connection to driving under the influence and unlawful possession of a firearm, fled on foot. As of Tuesday, federal agents were looking for him, ICE said in a statement.
“Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are reckless and false,” ICE said in the email.
At a news conference on Sunday, family members and immigrant rights advocates with the group FIEL said Parra-Hernandez was on his way to work.
“We want justice,” Rodolfo Parra, the man’s brother, said at the news conference. They said that Parra-Hernandez suffered two broken legs and underwent surgery. As of Monday, he was recovering at a hospital in Katy.
Natxielly Castañeda, Parra-Hernandez’s niece, said at the news conference that her uncle most likely ran from ICE out of fear, especially because he has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years without being in trouble with the law.
“We’re not animals, we shouldn’t be treated the way we’re being treated right now,” she said.
Bruno told the Houston Chronicle she is working to release her client from ICE custody.
ICE tactics questioned
The incident comes after another ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in July as he was driving to a job site with his employees in Houston. In a more recent incident in Austin, an ICE agent shot and injured 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez on Sept. 20 as he was working as a DoorDash food delivery driver. Prosecutors in Harris and Travis counties are also investigating these shootings.
ICE has come under public scrutiny for a spate of fatal and non-fatal shootings since the Trump administration returned to office. President Trump has prioritized immigration enforcement throughout the country, claiming that immigration agents are targeting previously convicted criminals who can be deported. Other news publications have reported the Trump administration has set a target of 3,000 daily arrests as part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, said the pressure of meeting a daily quota and cutting down on ICE training have resulted in some deportation officers using more force.
“We are seeing more of these — what I would call extreme reactions — to try to get an arrest. Where in the past agents would have said, ‘Never mind, it’s not that important. We’re not going to endanger ourselves or somebody else to get this arrest,’” said Cardinal Brown, who is now an adviser for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have blasted the Trump administration, saying ICE’s aggressive tactics are putting the general public’s safety at risk.
“Having an ICE badge and being an undercover agent does not give anybody license to treat people this way,” said Cesar Espinosa with FIEL at the Sunday news conference.
Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement that local officials need to investigate ICE’s use-of-force cases to determine whether federal agents were justified. She added that Congress also needs to rein in ICE to prevent further violence.
“The tactics ICE is using — car chases, ramming vehicles, and shooting people who pose no threat to the public — are dangerous and illegal when local police use them and they are dangerous and illegal when ICE uses them. No one — man, woman, or child — deserves to die from these brutal tactics.”
Congress to investigate ICE shootings
In previous ICE shootings, DHS has released preliminary information that was later contradicted by video footage or witness statements.
For example, in Salgado Araujo’s case, DHS initially said that he tried to ram ICE vehicles. But the other three men in the van later said Salgado Araujo never tried to hit the officers. Instead, they said ICE vehicles struck them from behind and the side before one of the agents fired, striking Salgado Araujo in the stomach.
“We need to know exactly what happened, and ICE’s word alone is not enough,” U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said in a statement posted on social media. “ICE has lied to the public before, and its operations have brought chaos to our communities.”
On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, and Garcia will join other lawmakers at a congressional field hearing in Austin to get more information about ICE shootings in Texas.
The witnesses include Rachel Reyes, the mother of Ruben Ray Martinez, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in 2025; and Kristen Etter, a lawyer for Garces Perez and an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas.
Disclosure: Bipartisan Policy Center and DoorDash have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
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