A federal immigration vehicle struck a Houston construction worker and broke his leg on Oct. 10 while officers pursued a man who apparently died years ago, the worker's family and advocates said, raising questions about why the operation took place at all, the Associated Press reported.

Source: Associated Press via USA Today News

The worker, 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernandez of Mexico, remains hospitalized with multiple leg fractures and needs reconstructive ankle surgery, according to FIEL, the Houston-based immigration advocacy group that spoke at a news conference on Friday, Oct. 16. ICE did not respond to a request for comment, AP said.

Two accounts of the collision

ICE said its officers spotted Parra Hernandez with a man it identified as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, the target of the operation, and tried to detain them both after a vehicle stop in which the men fled on foot. ICE said Parra Hernandez ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck. That is the agency's account, presented as its claim.

Advocates dispute that account. AP reported that criminal charges against the ICE officer who drove the vehicle are being considered by the Harris County District Attorney's Office after surveillance footage contradicted ICE's claim that Parra Hernandez stepped in front of the vehicle.

The photo, the family and the death record

After the collision, ICE released a photo of the man it said it was seeking, labelled wanted. Jamie Jimenez of Dallas said the man in the photo was her father, Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza, and that he died in 2017 after falling from a cliff as he fled immigration agents near the southern border, according to reporting by The New York Times cited in follow-up coverage. FIEL said the daughter provided documents confirming his death, and that the documents have been turned over to the district attorney.

Source: The New York Times reporting cited by Techdirt

"ICE is lying," FIEL executive director Cesar Espinosa said at the news conference. "Either somebody is not telling the truth or all of a sudden these two ICE agents have developed a sixth sense and are able to see dead people." Follow-up reporting notes a complication: the late man is reported to have used several aliases, including a name close to the one ICE used for its target — which is why the family's documents, now with the district attorney, are central to establishing who ICE was actually pursuing.

What is solid

  • An ICE vehicle struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, in Houston on Oct. 10, leaving him hospitalized with leg fractures, according to AP and his advocates.
  • ICE said the operation targeted Jose Mendoza-Cervantes and that Parra Hernandez ran in front of its vehicle — that is ICE's stated account.
  • The Harris County District Attorney's Office is considering charges against the driving officer, AP reported.

What is only claimed

  • The family and FIEL say the man in ICE's released photo is Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza, who died in 2017; ICE has not publicly explained the photo or responded to AP's request for comment.
  • How Parra Hernandez came to be struck is disputed: ICE's account and the surveillance footage described by AP point in different directions.