HOUSTON — Two handcuffed men were in the backseat of an ICE vehicle Saturday when it struck and injured Miguel Parra Hernandez as he fled on foot in Houston.
Advocates are fighting to make sure the men — now potential witnesses — are not deported.
At a news conference Wednesday, family members, advocates and attorneys identified one of the men as Luis Delfín Enríquez, 48.
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Video appears to show Houston man run over by ICE vehicle
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Nidia Delfín, Delfín’s sister, said her brother was handcuffed in the backseat of the ICE vehicle when it hit Parra, adding that he was on his way to breakfast with employees when he was apprehended by ICE. She said that Delfín is not a criminal, that he has no arrest warrants and that he was in the process of getting his green card, which means he was on the path to being a legal permanent resident.
“He owns his own small company. He hires people from the community. He is a good man,” she said, adding that he witnessed “this horrific incident.”
She said that she, her parents and her brother are afraid but that they are speaking up so Parra “can get justice.” She pleaded with others in the community who witnessed the incident — she said she has seen videos on social media — to do the same and share the information they have.
“What was done to him is not OK,” she said, referring to Parra. “It’s not how we’re supposed to treat other human beings.”
Cesar Espinosa of FIEL Houston, an immigrant civil rights organization who is representing Parra’s family, said the men held in the ICE vehicle “witnessed everything that happened,” including “the moment when Mr. Miguel [Parra] was run over.”
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told NBC News on Tuesday that videos gathered by his office suggest that Parra was struck intentionally. Teare said his office is seeking to interview the witnesses as it investigates the case.
“This was an intentional striking and running over of the person by the vehicle, and in that case, that is an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Texas,” he said.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News on Tuesday that ICE officers on the scene were wearing body cameras and that the agency is reviewing video for an internal investigation.
ICE has said allegations that the agency intentionally struck Parra are “RECKLESS and FALSE.”
Espinosa said that if there is video from body cameras, it should be turned over to the district attorney’s office immediately.
A government watchdog report released Wednesday found that Customs and Border Protection and ICE have not developed specific operational guidance to explain how their personnel should use body cameras.
Without that guidance, “CBP and ICE personnel will fail to use the cameras as required under policy,” the Government Accountability Office said in its report.
The Trump administration issued guidance two weeks ago that dictated that officers on the scenes of vehicle stops must wear and activate their body cameras.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to questions about the release of the bodycam video, whether they planned to deport witnesses to the incident and the status of the ICE officer who drove the vehicle that hit Parra.
Security video of the incident obtained by NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston shows a white truck headed in the opposite direction of traffic on a busy roadway. Parra and another man exit the white truck and run, the video shows.
At about the same time, the video shows, another vehicle jumps a yellow median and heads in Parra’s direction.
The video then shows the vehicle, which is not marked, swerving left toward Parra’s path, in front of a truck stopped in a shopping center. When the parked truck leaves, a man can be seen lying on the pavement behind the ICE vehicle, the video shows.
Teare, a Democrat, told NBC News the investigation could lead to charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Espinosa said at the news conference that Parra does not feel safe at the hospital. The ICE officers who were there when he was struck “are the same crew that are watching him 24/7” at the hospital, Espinosa said. He did not know whether the driver of the vehicle was among those guarding Parra.
ICE did not immediately confirm whether the ICE officers involved in Saturday’s incident are with Parra at the hospital.
Espinosa, Parra’s attorney Kim Bruno and Parra’s family demanded at the news conference that ICE keep Parra at the hospital where he is being treated for his multiple injuries.
Without the proper medical care, he could end up with infections and other problems that could be life-threatening, “so we need him to get the best medical care possible,” Espinosa said.
Espinosa and Bruno said Parra still has not been processed by ICE, which has said that he is in the country illegally. Bruno and Espinosa confirmed that Parra was undocumented and said they could not provide further information about whether he was seeking other status.
Parra, who works applying stucco, has been in the country 34 years, having arrived at age 14, Espinosa and Bruno said.
The man who was driving the truck with Parra and also ran away was identified at the news conference as “Omar.” He does not have a criminal record or any open immigration warrants, Espinosa said.
At the news conference, advocates criticized ICE for pursuing Parra with the immigrants handcuffed in their car, endangering everyone, according to Espinosa.
Teare, who served several years as the chief of the district attorney’s vehicular crimes division, also criticized ICE’s tactics.
“The behavior of this agency and these agents on our streets is so dangerous to everyone that lives in these communities,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
ICE did not immediately respond to allegations that it was conducting an immigration stop while it was transporting immigrants it had previously apprehended.
ICE has said in statements that it was pursuing a man it identified as Jose Mendoza Cervantes, who was in the country illegally and had committed several crimes. It has said Parra was not its target.
Espinosa repeatedly held up a photo of Mendoza at the news conference and said no one, including Parra, recognized him or knew who he was. He also showed a photo of Omar, the man who was with Parra in the car before they fled, to show it was not Mendoza.
“If he [Mendoza] does exist, he must be taken into custody, and a proper thorough investigation must be done so that he may be looked at,” Espinosa said.
