ICE Agent Charged with Felony After Allegedly Running Over Texas Immigrant During Pursuit

A US immigration agent has been charged with a felony for allegedly hitting a man with a vehicle earlier this month in Texas, a prosecutor announced on Friday.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Mario Alberto Morales was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the prosecutor said. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said that if convicted, Morales faces between two and 20 years in prison for the second-degree felony.

Morales is accused of running over a Mexican national who was living in the US without legal documentation, leaving him with multiple leg fractures and a hip injury, prosecutors said.

Teare told a news conference in Houston on Friday that on the morning of 10 October, Morales pursued a vehicle driven by Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a 48-year-old Mexican national who has lived in Texas for more than 30 years without legal documentation.

Parra-Hernandez and another occupant fled the vehicle on foot before Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into the Mexican national, Teare said. He said Morales not only hit Parra-Hernandez but ran over both of his legs, leaving him seriously injured and hospitalised to this day.

Morales then called 911 to report that Parra-Hernandez had hit his car, Teare said.

Teare said Parra-Hernandez had no criminal record and was not subject to a deportation order. He said ICE was allegedly pursuing a man named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, a Mexican national and undocumented immigrant who has apparently been dead for nine years.

Immediately after the incident, an ICE spokesperson told the BBC's US media partner CBS News that Parra-Hernandez had run in front of the immigration agent's vehicle.

Following the indictment, ICE rejected the allegations brought by the grand jury. An ICE spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC that the indictment was nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians, and that allegations ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are reckless and false. The spokesperson added that the men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethical conduct.

The statement added that federal officers acting in the course of their duties could only be investigated by other federal agencies. The spokesperson insisted that local governments did not have the authority to run such an investigation.

District Attorney Teare stressed that he had the utmost respect for law enforcement and believed that undocumented individuals who were violent felons should be deported. He said he hoped the prosecution would not only deliver justice for Parra-Hernandez and his family but also send a loud and clear message to every ICE officer who feels they have a free pass to terrorise the streets.

The indictment comes amid the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration and a series of violent incidents involving federal agents that have resulted in injuries and deaths.