Mexican illegal immigrant flees ICE in Texas — then he’s hit by ICE vehicle, while the real target gets away
An immigration enforcement operation in northwest Houston on Saturday morning, Oct. 10, ended with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle striking a 48-year-old man as he ran from agents, and local and federal officials are giving conflicting accounts of how it happened.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said agents were chasing a white pickup that was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of Clay Road at about 7:20 a.m. Two men got out and ran. One of them, whom ICE identified as Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a Mexican national without legal status in the U.S., was hit by an ICE vehicle.
Sheriff’s officials said he appeared to have a broken leg, and an immigrant advocacy group later said the leg was broken in three places and that he needed surgery.
ICE told Breitbart Texas that Parra-Hernandez “ran directly in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck,” and that officers gave immediate first aid and called paramedics. The sheriff’s office described it differently.
“He was trying to box him in to the backside of the building at the corner and struck the passenger,” Maj. Anthony McConnell said of the agent at a Saturday news conference.
The sheriff’s office is investigating. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who herself is an immigrant from Bogotá, Colombia, has called on ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to release body camera video and audio so local authorities can do a full review. ICE said Parra-Hernandez was in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The sheriff’s office said he was in ICE custody.
ICE said the target of the operation was the driver, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, a Mexican national it called a public safety threat. ICE said he has a final order of removal from an immigration judge, four prior arrests for driving under the influence and an arrest for unlawful gun possession.
The agency also said he had been deported twice after entering the country illegally five times. A search of local court records by Houston Public Media found no criminal cases against him in Dallas or Harris counties, where ICE said his record was based, and ICE did not immediately respond to that finding. Mendoza-Cervantes fled on foot and was still at large as of Sunday.
The case adds to the scrutiny of ICE operations in the Houston area, where an ICE agent fatally shot a man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, in July. Key questions now rest on the sheriff’s investigation and on whether federal agencies release video of the encounter. A pursuit that sends a pickup truck the wrong way down a busy road also puts other drivers at risk, which is likely to be part of the review.
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