ICE Agent Who Hit Man With SUV in Houston to Surrender Monday

Federal immigration enforcement in the United States has seen a spike in legal disputes, with a new case in Houston drawing national attention. A grand jury indicted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Friday, setting the stage for his upcoming surrender to authorities.

Mario Alberto Morales, a 33-year-old ICE officer, is charged with a felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The indictment follows an incident on October 10 in which Morales struck Miguel Parra Hernández with his unmarked SUV. Parra, a 48-year-old construction worker of Mexican nationality, was running through a parking lot when the collision occurred.

Morales’s attorney, David Lindenmuth, told the Associated Press that his client plans to turn himself in at a local court on Monday. Lindenmuth previously described the collision as a clear accident and argued that local authorities manufactured a crime out of nothing. He noted that Morales has served in the agency for just over a year.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare revealed that Parra suffered a fractured leg. The victim is recovering at a rehabilitation center while remaining in federal custody. Teare stated that investigators possess a substantial amount of information regarding Morales. He suggested that law enforcement agencies typically would not hire an individual with Morales’s background, though he declined to provide further specifics.

Body camera footage played by prosecutors shows Morales making sharp turns with the steering wheel. After stopping the vehicle, the agent exits and turns toward Parra, who is lying on the ground and shouting. Another ICE agent arrives shortly after. In the video, Morales says, “I was coming in and I hit him with the car.”

Surveillance video from a nearby camera captured the SUV crossing a median to hit Parra. The Harris County police incident report notes that Parra told officers he fled the traffic stop when Morales began putting on a mask. Parra claimed the agent drove the car at him. Morales stated he did not brake before the impact but insisted the hit was not intentional.

ICE stated that the operation targeted José Mendoza Cervantes, whom the agency claimed was seen getting into a car with Parra. Mendoza Cervantes’s daughter told the immigrant rights group FIEL that her father has been dead for nearly a decade. Morales, who served in the 82nd Airborne Division and as a prison officer, ran for Congress in Texas’s 34th district earlier this year under the name Bam Morales.

Court records show Morales was charged with a minor offense in 2013 for stealing four DVDs. Those charges were dismissed after he paid a $270 fine and entered a guilty plea agreement. The agent also wrote in a Ballotpedia questionnaire that he supports the organization Make America Godlier Again. He appeared at a 2024 Christian conference where he translated sermons about immigrants into Spanish.