Texas Grand Jury Indicts ICE Officer Over Houston-Area Incident That Injured Man

A Harris County, Texas, grand jury indicted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Mario Alberto Morales on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, District Attorney Sean Teare announced Friday. The charge stems from an Oct. 10 incident in the Houston area in which Morales's vehicle struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a Mexican national. Under Texas law it is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.

Teare said Parra-Hernandez, 48, has lived in Texas for more than 30 years without documentation, has no criminal record and had no deportation order. Agents pursued a vehicle he was driving; he and another person fled on foot. Investigators said an unmarked SUV struck him in a car park near Clay Road and Highway 6, and he suffered a broken leg and an ankle injury requiring surgery. Video was shown at Friday's news conference. ICE said agents were seeking Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, an undocumented Mexican national; Teare said he appears to have been dead for nine years. ICE says Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle and called the indictment a political stunt, and it disputes local jurisdiction, which Teare calls false.

Just the News, the right-leaning outlet, leads with the crash and the man struck, relying on the Harris County Sheriff's Office account of a white truck stopping and two men fleeing. It describes ICE's target, Mendoza-Cervantes, as an illegal immigrant with four prior arrests and includes the attorney Kim Bruno saying her client does not know him. It says little on intent, and its headline calls the event a crash. CBS News and The New Republic, on the left, lead with the indictment and Teare's allegations. CBS stresses Parra-Hernandez's clean record and the claim that the target is long dead. The New Republic's headline says the agent intentionally hit someone, and it quotes the body-cam exchange, ICE's political-stunt charge and Teare's line that a badge is no license to injure. Both sides report the charge, sentence range and ICE's target; they differ over intent and the target's record. Al Jazeera adds context that such charges have been rare during the Trump crackdown.