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By Amanda Castro
Associate News Editor
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A federal immigration officer in Texas has been indicted on an aggravated assault charge after prosecutors accused him of deliberately driving an SUV into a man who was fleeing on foot during an enforcement operation in Houston.
Criminal charges against federal immigration officers over their conduct in the field have been relatively rare during President Donald Trump’s expanded immigration crackdown, even as a series of confrontations involving ICE and other federal agents have triggered investigations and disputes between federal and local authorities.
Morales’ case is the first indictment of an immigration agent in Texas.
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Mario Alberto Morales, 33, faces a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over the October 10 encounter with Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old Mexican national who suffered serious injuries and remains in ICE custody while receiving rehabilitation care. Local authorities said they had not taken Morales into custody as of Friday afternoon.
The indictment follows a sharply disputed account of the encounter. ICE initially said Parra Hernandez ran in front of an agency vehicle, while Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said video evidence shows Morales steering toward him.
ICE has rejected allegations that the collision was intentional and called the prosecution a “political stunt.”
Newsweek has contacted ICE, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Morales’ attorney and an attorney for Parra Hernandez for comment.
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ICE Agent Mario Alberto Morales Charged With Aggravated Assault: What We Know
The incident unfolded at about 7:30 a.m. on October 10 in northwest Harris County. According to Teare, Morales was driving a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee while pursuing a vehicle driven by Parra Hernandez. Parra Hernandez and another person eventually left the vehicle and ran away on foot. Surveillance footage released by prosecutors shows the SUV crossing a median and heading into a parking area after one of the fleeing men.
Teare said Morales then deliberately directed the vehicle toward Parra Hernandez, running over both of his legs. Some of the most significant evidence comes from Morales’ body-worn camera and his subsequent 911 call. After the collision, Parra Hernandez can be heard in pain and is shown lying on the pavement.
Morales is recorded saying, “I was coming in, and I hit him with the car.”
That evidence contrasts with the account Morales gave emergency dispatchers. In the 911 recording, he said he tried to maneuver around Parra Hernandez and that the man instead made contact with his vehicle. ICE similarly said that immediately after the incident, Parra Hernandez had run in front of the vehicle.
Teare described the evidence supporting the prosecution as exceptionally strong. Morales is charged with second-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, with the vehicle alleged to be the deadly weapon. If convicted, he could face between two and 20 years in prison.
Who Is Mario Alberto Morales?
Morales is a 33-year-old ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer. According to information from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, he is a Brownsville, Texas, native who previously worked as an ICE contractor before joining the agency as an officer during its hiring expansion in 2025.
Morales’ lawyer, David Lindenmuth, has described his client as a military veteran and pastor and said he remained in the Houston area and intended to surrender once the criminal case was assigned to a court. Teare said Friday that authorities had been in contact with Morales’ attorney. Houston Public Media reported that Morales had not yet been taken into custody when the indictment was announced.
The circumstances of Morales’ hiring have also drawn scrutiny from the district attorney. Teare said Morales had previously been unsuccessful in seeking a Border Patrol job and questioned whether his prior record would ordinarily have qualified him for a law enforcement position.
Morales joined ICE during a broader staffing expansion as the Trump administration increased immigration enforcement. Teare has raised questions about the vetting and training of newer ICE personnel.
Those concerns have not been proven to have contributed to the October 10 incident, and Morales has not been convicted of the charge.
Who Is Miguel Parra Hernandez?
Parra Hernandez is a 48-year-old Mexican national who has lived in Texas for more than 30 years, Teare said. The district attorney said Friday that Parra Hernandez had no criminal record or outstanding deportation order. He was nevertheless in the country without legal status.
He sustained injuries to his hip, leg and ankle in the October 10 collision, including a broken leg. Teare said Friday that Morales ran over both of his legs and that Parra Hernandez was recovering at a rehabilitation facility while remaining in ICE custody.
The enforcement operation itself has also come under scrutiny. ICE initially said agents were conducting a targeted operation to arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, whom the agency identified as a Mexican national who had previously been deported and had a final removal order.
Teare said Friday that Mendoza-Cervantes apparently had been dead for nine years, while earlier reporting cited the man’s daughter as saying he died in 2017.
The district attorney has said his office had not independently established the full circumstances surrounding the intended target, leaving questions about why agents were pursuing Parra Hernandez’s vehicle.
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How ICE, Prosecutors Have Responded
ICE has forcefully disputed the local prosecution and continues to reject the allegation that Morales intentionally struck Parra Hernandez.
An ICE spokesperson called the indictment a “political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians” and argued that federal officers acting within their duties could only be investigated by federal authorities. Teare rejected that position as “patently false.”
The factual dispute is just as stark. ICE’s original account said Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle. Teare, relying on surveillance footage, body-camera video and other evidence gathered by investigators, said Morales instead “aggressively steered his vehicle” at the fleeing man.
“An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,” Teare said Friday.
The district attorney said he hoped the case would both bring justice to Parra Hernandez and send a broader message about accountability for federal immigration officers working in Harris County.
Other Incidents Involving ICE Officers and Use of Force
Morales is not the only federal immigration officer to face state criminal charges this year.
In Minnesota, ICE officer Christian Castro was charged in May with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in connection with the January shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man. Prosecutors accused Castro of firing his service weapon through the front door of a home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg before the bullet lodged in the wall of a child’s bedroom.
DHS initially alleged that Sosa-Celis and another man attacked an officer with a shovel and broom. Prosecutors later dismissed charges against the two men after saying newly discovered evidence was materially inconsistent with those allegations.
Then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons subsequently said a review of video indicated that two officers appeared to have made untruthful statements in sworn testimony.
Another ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was charged in Minnesota with felony second-degree assault after prosecutors accused him of pointing his duty weapon at two people in another vehicle in February. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the alleged conduct fell outside an officer’s authority.
The broader debate over accountability for federal immigration agents resurfaced this week in the case of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis on January 24. His parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, held their first news conference since his death on Tuesday and called on the Justice Department to release evidence to state investigators. No agent has been charged over Pretti’s death.
The Prettis said they had received no substantive information from the federal government about the investigation nine months after their son’s killing. Their attorney said the family wants the Justice Department to turn over evidence and stop fighting Minnesota authorities' request for access to the investigative file. The Justice Department told ABC News that the timing was consistent with how such investigations proceed and that communication with victims’ families does not typically occur during an investigation.
The Houston case presents different circumstances, and the Morales allegations are independent of the Minnesota cases. Together, the prosecutions and ongoing investigations illustrate a larger legal conflict over when state and local officials can investigate or prosecute federal immigration officers for conduct during enforcement operations.
What Happens Next?
Morales will have to answer the aggravated assault charge in Harris County court. As of Friday afternoon, he had not been taken into custody. Teare said prosecutors were communicating with his lawyer, while the Houston Chronicle reported that his attorney expected Morales to surrender after the case was assigned to a court.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez emphasized Friday that Morales retains the presumption of innocence and the right to due process.
The jurisdictional fight raised by ICE could also become part of the case. The agency contends that local authorities cannot investigate federal officers acting within the scope of their duties, while Teare maintains his office has authority to prosecute violations of Texas criminal law.
Meanwhile, Teare’s office is separately investigating an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston in July.
The district attorney has stressed that the two investigations differ, including in the evidence available to prosecutors.
For Parra Hernandez, the consequences of the October encounter are already substantial. He remains in immigration custody while recovering from his injuries. For Morales, the next phase will shift from competing public accounts of what happened to a criminal proceeding in which prosecutors must prove their allegation that the collision was intentional beyond a reasonable doubt.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Gray R. Thomas
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