ICE officer indicted in Texas after striking immigrant with vehicle

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who hit and injured a man with a vehicle in Houston, Texas, was indicted by a grand jury in Harris County on Friday.

The 33-year-old officer, Mario Alberto Morales, was indicted on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly driving his vehicle into Miguel Parra Hernandez earlier this month, NBC News reported .

“The evidence that we have in this case is as clear as any that I’ve ever prosecuted or investigated,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said in a news conference on Friday, according to NBC.

“An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,” Teare said.

Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old immigrant without legal status, was driving to work when federal authorities attempted to pull him over. He stopped his car, and he and his passenger attempted to run away.

Surveillance footage from the incident shows the two men running away while an SUV veers and hits Parra Hernandez, who suffered multiple injuries to his leg .

An ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement to NBC that the indictment “is nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians.” The spokesperson said that only federal agencies can investigate “federal officers acting in the course of their duties.”

At the press conference, Teare said that is “false.”

Following the incident, ICE said officers observed a suspect they were targeting, identified as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, entering a vehicle with Parra Hernandez. An immigration advocacy group, FIEL Houston, said the alleged suspect died years ago according to documentation provided by the man’s family, The New York Times reported.

In an earlier statement to The Hill, an ICE spokesperson said the claims that a federal officer purposefully hit Parra Hernandez are “RECKLESS and FALSE.”