ICE Pursuit in Houston Injures Miguel Parra, Who Was Not the Intended Target, Family Says

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle struck Miguel Parra Hernandez during a pursuit in Harris County, leaving the 48-year-old with multiple fractures. His family says the man ICE identified as its target had died years earlier.

The collision happened Oct. 10 near Clay Road and Highway 6, northwest of Houston. Parra suffered a broken right leg in three places and a fractured ankle that requires surgery.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Anthony McConnell said the agency received a call at about 7:20 a.m. The ICE agent who struck Parra had called 911 to request an ambulance.

Parra remains at Memorial Hermann Katy under guard and in ICE custody. FIEL Houston officials say he has lived in Houston for 34 years and has no criminal record.

The accounts of what happened differ. The family also disputes whom agents were trying to arrest.

The family says ICE named a man who died in 2017

At a Friday news conference in Houston, FIEL said the family of the man ICE named as its target had provided documents showing he died in 2017. ICE identified the alleged target as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes. FIEL said the image ICE circulated instead showed José Hector Jimenez Mendoza.

FIEL executive director Cesar Espinosa said the man’s daughter contacted the organization after seeing the photograph. “She called our office sobbing because she saw her dad's picture all over the news, all over the ICE website, saying they were looking for her dad,” he said.

Kim Bruno, Parra’s attorney, gave FIEL a copy of a Mexican death certificate supplied by the family. The certificate lists the name as J. Hector Jimenez Mendoza, gives 2017 as the year of death, and identifies Laredo, Texas, as the location. Several sections, including the cause of death and family details, are blacked out.

The family says Jimenez Mendoza died while trying to enter the United States, in a separate immigration pursuit near the southern border. His daughter, Jamie Jimenez, recognized him in the picture and told people he had used aliases, including the name ICE released. Her husband, Andres Rendon, also identified him as his wife’s deceased father.

Jazmine Ulloa said her team gathered family photographs, the death certificate and Jimenez’s birth certificate. She also described searches of court records that found charges attributed to ICE’s target, including driving under the influence and unlawful possession of a weapon, under Jimenez Mendoza’s given name.

Espinosa said FIEL gave relevant documents to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare. “Ice is lying,” he said. Bruno called the use of the dead man’s image “jaw-dropping.”

Investigators are testing accounts of how Parra was hit

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the collision as a possible aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Teare said investigators believe the agent may have run Parra down, but said crash reconstruction and use-of-force specialists still need to examine the evidence.

“Multiple investigators who have decades of experience investigating auto-pedestrian crashes have all watched the surveillance, seen the scene and believe it is not an accidental strike,” Teare said. He previously led the office’s vehicular crimes division.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows the agent’s black SUV crossing a curb and median toward men running away. The vehicle had emergency lights installed, but they were not on in the footage. Another vehicle blocks the apparent point of impact; afterward, the fleeing man appears on the ground.

The sheriff’s office said a white truck traveled the wrong way on Clay Road before stopping. Two men got out and ran. One escaped eastbound, while the other, identified by authorities as Parra, was struck.

ICE gave a different account of the operation. A spokesperson said agents were conducting a targeted enforcement operation to arrest Mendoza-Cervantes, whom the agency described as having a criminal record, four prior arrests and a final removal order. ICE said an agent saw Mendoza-Cervantes and Parra enter a car, tried to stop them, and then saw Parra run in front of the agent’s vehicle.

Prosecutors are seeking footage from more businesses and statements from witnesses. Teare said a driver in a pickup truck idling in a parking lot may have seen the impact. His office learned the agent’s identity from ICE personnel at the scene, and Teare said the agent may have had a body camera or dash camera.

FIEL said the agent has been placed on administrative leave. The Department of Homeland Security separately confirmed the leave while an internal investigation continues. Teare said federal officials had not cooperated with his office or the sheriff’s investigation.

Two accounts place witnesses in different vehicles

Bruno said Luis Delfin Martinez and another man were detained early Saturday and were inside the ICE vehicle when it struck Parra. Both are being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe. The second man has not been publicly identified.

“He has firsthand knowledge of the entire account. He was in the vehicle that actually ran over Mr. Parra and so he is a key witness,” Bruno said of Martinez. She said the district attorney’s office was working to obtain his statement.

Martinez’s sister, Nidia Delfin, said her brother had lived in the United States for more than three decades, owned a small company and had a pending application for legal status. She said he had been heading to breakfast with employees before ICE stopped them.

“My brother is afraid, my parents are afraid, we as a family are afraid,” she said. “But we are speaking up and we are asking the community to step up.”

At Friday’s news conference, FIEL also introduced a man who gave only the name “Omar.” He said he was with Parra in the truck before they ran, and Espinosa said he plans to share his account later. Bruno said Parra had never met Mendoza-Cervantes; the district attorney’s office also said the man ICE identified was not in Parra’s vehicle.

Parra remains in custody while recovering from surgery-related injuries

Bruno said she visited Parra at the hospital Monday, but ICE agents ended their conversation after 10 or 15 minutes and had security escort them out. She challenged his continued custody.

Parra has injuries to his hip, leg and ankle and needs reconstructive ankle surgery. Bruno said he has been depressed in federal custody, particularly after learning that he was not the person ICE said it was seeking.

“This never should have happened in the first place,” Bruno said. Parra’s brother, Roberto Parra, said the two worked construction together and that he wants his brother treated humanely. He said Miguel has a family to support.

FIEL is seeking Parra’s release before authorities move him from the hospital to a federal detention center. Espinosa said the organization has spoken with people who dispute the official account and urged ICE to turn over body-camera footage.

The prosecutor is weighing another ICE case for a grand jury

Teare’s office is preparing a possible second criminal case involving an ICE agent for grand jury review. It comes as prosecutors pursue a separate investigation into the fatal July 7 shooting of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after a police chase in Houston’s East End.

Prosecutors began presenting witnesses in the Salgado Araujo case last month. No agent involved in that shooting has been charged, and Teare said he expects a charging decision to be put to the grand jury within a month. He described the Parra investigation as more straightforward, while saying investigators still need evidence from the scene and witnesses.

Local officials have called on ICE to cooperate. Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones said the agency should provide evidence to the sheriff’s office, and Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin said the public deserved clear answers and backed the independent investigations led by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Teare.