Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office has interviewed the man who was detained in the backseat of an unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle when an agent struckMiguel Parra Hernandezin northwest Houston on Saturday.
"We were the only law enforcement that ever spoke to him." Teare said.
In an appearance onHello Houston, Teare said ICE had already moved the witness more than 300 miles south to the Port Isabel detention center when his office requested an interview with the detainee. The DA's office immediately sent an investigator to interview the witness.
"We notified ICE the second we were made aware of them that this individual is a material witness [and] we need to speak to him," Teare said. "The interview for us ended at about 8 p.m. that night. He was on a plane sent to Mexico by 1 o’clock the next morning."
ICE nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately responded to a request for comment regarding why the witness had been relocated to Port Isabel.
On Oct. 10, an ICE vehicle struck Parra Hernandez after he exited a vehicle following a pursuit on Clay Road in northwest Houston. Parra-Hernandez suffered a broken leg and is still receiving treatment as of Friday, according to his family. He was the passenger of the vehicle ICE had been pursuing, according to DHS.
According to a spokesperson for DHS, ICE agents were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation in Harris County to arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes,” who ICE claimed was driving the vehicle and fled the scene.
A DHS spokesperson said the incident is under an active internal investigation and, per standard practice, the officer involved has been suspended.
"Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are reckless and false," the spokesperson said. "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."
Teare said Parra Hernandez's case may be "even more egregious" than the Lorenzo Salgado-Araujo case. Salgado-Araujo was shot andkilled by ICE agents in early Julyduring another "targeted enforcement operation," of which Salgado-Araujo was not the intended target.
In the Parra-Hernandez case, Teare said his office has not yet seen the ICE agent's body camera footage and has not yet confirmed the cameras were turned on during the incident. They say sheriff's office body camera footage confirms the ICE agents were wearing body cameras.
FIEL Houston, a local civil rights organization, said Friday it had been contacted by the daughter of the man ICE was allegedly searching for the day Parra-Hernandez was struck by an ICE vehicle. According to FIEL, the man ICE was looking for had been dead for nine years.
"The biggest shock came on Wednesday afternoon when the daughter [of] alias Jose Cervantes Mendoza came forward, who we now know his name is Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza," Caesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL, said at a press conference Friday. "She called our office sobbing because she saw her dad's picture all over the news, all over the ICE website and saying that they were looking for her dad."
On Thursday, theNew York Timesreportedthat this same daughter, Jamie Jimenez, provided a Mexican death certificate showing that Jimenez Mendoza died in Laredo in October 2017.Houston Public Mediahas not independently verified the reported death certificate.
Espinosa said Jimenez Mendoza died "at the hands of" U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) while attempting to cross into the U.S.
"So whether it's a government flaw, or whether it's irresponsibility, or whether they didn't fingerprint Mr. Jose Hector Jimenez when he passed, there had to have been a record that Jose Hector Jimenez was deceased nine years ago," Espinosa said. "We have all the verifying documentation to prove that, which we have turned over to the district attorney's office.
On Friday, Espinosa said Parra-Hernandez was still awaiting additional surgeries while he remained in ICE custody at a hospital.
"He still has multiple fractures on his right leg, still has to have reconstructive surgery on his ankle, and more importantly, his state of mind is slowly starting to deteriorate," Espinosa said. "This man is in his bed and around him 24-7 are armed ICE agents."
Houston Public Media’s Michael Adkison contributed to this article.
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