A Harris County grand jury indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales on Friday for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — his vehicle — a second-degree felony carrying two to 20 years in prison, after prosecutors said he steered his unmarked SUV into a fleeing man during an enforcement operation in northwest Houston and ran over both of his legs. District Attorney Sean Teare, announcing the indictment alongside Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, said Morales is the first ICE agent in Texas indicted since the federal surge began. An indictment is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and Morales is presumed innocent.
The charge grows out of the morning of October 10, in a parking lot near Clay Road and Highway 6, during a targeted ICE operation. Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48, a Mexican construction worker who has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years, got out of a pickup and ran. Teare said Parra-Hernandez was not the target of the operation and has no criminal record. Morales, driving an unmarked black Jeep, crossed a median and struck him from behind. Two men arrested in a separate operation were handcuffed in the back seat of Morales's SUV during the pursuit — "I know of no law enforcement agency that would deem that to be acceptable," Gonzalez said.
Prosecutors say the video settles what happened. Surveillance footage shows the SUV jumping the median and swerving into Parra-Hernandez's path as he ran, though another vehicle blocks the exact instant of impact on that angle. Morales was wearing a body camera: on its audio, Parra-Hernandez says, "You ran over me," and Morales answers, "I was coming in and I hit him with the car." In his own 911 call asking for an ambulance, Morales told the dispatcher: "I tried to get around him and he hit my car." Teare's reading of the record: "Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra-Hernandez. Not only did he hit Mr. Hernandez, he ran over both of his legs, leaving him seriously injured and hospitalized to this day." The evidence, Teare said, is "as clear as any that I've ever prosecuted or investigated."
Parra-Hernandez's right leg was broken in three places, with further injuries to his hip and ankle. He underwent surgery and, as of Friday, was in a rehabilitation facility — in ICE custody, facing deportation. His attorney, Kim Bruno, said he arrived in the United States at 14 and has lived here 34 years.
ICE denies the strike was deliberate, in full: Parra-Hernandez "ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck," and the agency said its officers were not targeting him. On the intent allegation, ICE stated: "Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are RECKLESS and FALSE. The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct." After the indictment, ICE called it "nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians," and asserted that only federal agencies can investigate federal officers acting in the course of their duties — which Teare said is false. U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz backed the agent the same day, calling it "a political prosecution of an ICE agent for doing his job" and saying, "Federal agents should not be turned into political trophies for doing the difficult and dangerous work of enforcing federal law." Morales's attorney, David Lindenmuth, says his client committed no crime: the collision was an accident — Morales swerved to avoid a truck — and Teare indicted him "for political gain."
One fight is over the vehicle itself. ICE officers drove the SUV away from the scene before local investigators finished their work; a Harris County judge signed a search warrant for the Jeep's event data on October 15, but as of October 23 the federal agencies had not provided access — the warrant return called them "unresponsive" — and Teare said removing the vehicle likely erased recorded crash data. Morales, hired by ICE in August 2025 during the administration's Operation Metro Surge and placed on administrative leave after the collision, was not in custody on Friday; prosecutors said a warrant would be issued, and his attorney said he is expected to surrender once the case is assigned to a court. No bond amount or first court date has been reported.
What Friday's indictment decides, before any trial, is who judges a federal officer's conduct on a Houston street: a local grand jury of Harris County citizens, or no one outside the federal government itself. Teare put his office's position plainly: "As long as I am district attorney, this office will prosecute any law enforcement officer who violates the law. An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill or violate the constitutional rights of anyone." The same grand jury is still hearing evidence on the July 7 fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston — a reminder that in Harris County, the badge is now being measured by the same law as everyone else.
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