Skip to content 
HOUSTON – Two handcuffed men were in the back seat of an ICE vehicle Saturday when it hit and injured Miguel Parra Hernandez as he fled on foot in Houston.
Lawyers are fighting to ensure the men – now potential witnesses – are not deported.
At a press conference Wednesday, family members, lawyers and lawyers identified one of the men as Luis Delfín Enríquez, 48.
01:14
Video appears to show Houston man run over by ICE vehicle
00:0000:00
Nidia Delfín, Delfín’s sister, said her brother was tied up in the back seat of the ICE vehicle when it hit Parra, adding that he was on his way to breakfast with co-workers when he was arrested by ICE. She said that Delfín is not a criminal, that he has no arrest warrants and that he is in the process of getting his green card, which means he was on his way to being a legal permanent resident.
“He owns his own small company. He hires people from the community. He’s a good man,” she said, adding that he witnessed “this terrible incident.”
She said she, her parents and her brother are scared, but that they are speaking out so Parra “can get justice.” She pleaded with others in the community who witnessed the incident — she said she saw videos on social media — to do the same and share any information they have.
“What was done to him is not OK,” she said, referring to Parra. “It’s not how we should treat other human beings.”
Cesar Espinosa of FIEL Houston, an immigrant civil rights organization representing Parra’s family, said the men in the ICE vehicle “witnessed everything that happened,” including “the moment Mr. Miguel [Parra] was overrun.”
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told NBC News on Tuesday that videos collected by his office suggest Parra was intentionally beaten. Teare said his office is trying to interview witnesses as it investigates the case.
“This was an intentional hit and run by the person of the vehicle, in which 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 at the scene were wearing body cameras and that the agency was reviewing video for an internal investigation.
ICE has said that the agency’s deliberate beating of Parra is “RECKLESS and FALSE.”
Espinosa said that if there is video from body cameras, it should be immediately handed over to the district attorney’s office.
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 this guidance, “CBP and ICE personnel will not use the cameras as required under the policy,” the Government Accountability Office said in its report.
The Trump administration issued guidelines two weeks ago that dictated that officers at the scenes of vehicle stops 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 was driving the vehicle that struck Parra.
Security video of the incident obtained by NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston shows a white truck heading in the opposite direction of traffic on a busy street. 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 toward Parra.
The video then shows the vehicle, which is not marked, swerve left towards Parra’s path, in front of a truck that was stopped at 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 that 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 beaten “are the same crew watching him 24/7” at the hospital, Espinosa said. He did not know if the driver of the vehicle among those who guarded 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 in the hospital where he is being treated for his multiple injuries.
Without the right 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 said he is in the country illegally. Bruno and Espinosa confirmed that Parra was undocumented and said they could not provide further information on whether he had sought a different status.
Parra, who works with Stuck, has been in the country for 34 years, having arrived at the age of 14, Espinosa and Bruno said.
The man who drove the truck with Parra and also ran away was identified at the press conference as “Omar.” He does not have a criminal record or any open immigration warrants, Espinosa said.
At the news conference, attorneys criticized ICE for chasing Parra with the immigrants in her car, putting everyone in danger, according to Espinosa.
Teare, who served for several years as head of the district attorney’s vehicle crimes division, also criticized ICE’s tactics.
“The behavior of this agency and these agents on our streets is so dangerous to everyone who lives in these communities,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
ICE did not immediately respond to allegations that it conducted an immigration stop while transporting immigrants it had previously detained.
ICE 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 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 in the car with Parra before they fled, to show that it was not Mendoza.
“If he [Mendoza] exists, he needs to be taken into custody, and a real thorough investigation needs to be done so that he can be looked into,” Espinosa said.
