An ICE agent struck a man with his vehicle on Saturday morning during a chase in northwest Harris County, Texas, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. The man, 48, was hospitalized with a suspected broken leg and is in stable condition. He is in ICE custody at the hospital. ICE identified him to ABC News as Miguel Parra-Hernandez.
The sheriff’s office said the incident happened around 7:20 a.m. on Clay Road near Highway 6, in the far west of the Houston area, and that the agent himself called 911 for an ambulance. The sheriff’s Vehicular Crimes Division is investigating the collision and has been collecting surveillance footage from nearby buildings. Deputies said their inquiry is limited to the crash itself and referred all questions about the enforcement operation to ICE.
What the Sheriff’s Office Says Happened
According to deputies, ICE agents were pursuing a wanted man who had a warrant. He was in a vehicle with a passenger. When the agents moved in, both men ran. An agent tried to box the passenger in against the back of a building with his vehicle and struck him, ABC13 reported. The passenger is the man now in the hospital. The sheriff’s office has not said what the warrant was for or what happened to the driver.
Surveillance video obtained by Fox 26 and reviewed by ABC News appears to show the agent steering the vehicle toward the running man before hitting him. The sheriff’s office has not characterized the footage.
The case is unusual in one respect: the county is investigating a federal agent’s conduct behind the wheel. The sheriff’s office can determine whether a traffic offense occurred and refer its findings to the district attorney; it cannot investigate the immigration operation. Whether ICE conducts its own review, and whether any of it becomes public, is up to ICE.
The Reaction
Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones, whose Precinct 4 includes the area, said in a statement Saturday that she was horrified to learn an ICE vehicle had struck a man on Clay Road, that her prayers were with his family, and that ICE must cooperate fully with the sheriff’s office and release all video evidence of the incident. She demanded full transparency, accountability and respect for the rule of law, and said ICE under the Trump administration has brought chaos and destruction to communities across the country.
ICE has provided the man’s name to reporters and has otherwise said nothing: no account of the operation, no statement on the agent, no response to the commissioner’s demand for video. The agency does not routinely release footage from enforcement operations, and the surveillance video that exists belongs to the businesses whose cameras recorded it, which is why the sheriff’s office rather than ICE has been the source of it so far.
What This Means
For the man in the hospital, the injury is the least of what comes next. He is in ICE custody, which means that when he is discharged he goes to a detention center. If he has no status, he faces removal; if he has a claim, detention is where he will have to make it. His family’s first task is to find out which facility he is sent to, through the ICE online detainee locator, and to get him a lawyer before his first hearing. The site’s guide on detention without bond hearings explains why that hearing may not happen.
For anyone who witnesses an enforcement operation, the Houston incident is a reminder that the record of what happened is being made by whoever has a camera. Bystanders have the right to film ICE from a public place as long as they do not interfere, and that footage, preserved with its date and time, is what a lawyer, a county investigator or a reporter will ask for. Post it only after a copy is saved.
For families, the operational lesson is that enforcement actions are now happening at homes, workplaces and in traffic, and running from them rarely ends better than not running. A person stopped by ICE can remain silent and ask for a lawyer; a person caught after fleeing is in a far weaker position to use either.