Family and advocates gathered Sunday Oct. 11, 2026 to demand justice for Miguel Parra Hernandez, a Houston man whom ICE agents struck with their vehicle the day prior.
Tanya Babbar/Staff Writer
Family and advocates gathered Sunday Oct. 11, 2026 to demand justice for Miguel Parra Hernandez, a Houston man whom ICE agents struck with their vehicle the day prior.
Tanya Babbar/Staff Writer
An attorney for the family of Miguel Parra-Hernandez, who was struck by an ICE vehicle in Houston Saturday, was working to get him released from the agency’s custody Sunday as he awaited surgery at a Katy-area hospital.
Around 40 people joined the family and advocacy group FIEL Houston for a Sunday demonstration and news conference at the west Houston intersection where an ICE vehicle struck Parra-Hernandez during an enforcement operation a little after 7 a.m. Saturday. An unnamed ICE spokesperson said in a Saturday statement that Parra-Hernandez “ran in front of the vehicle and was struck.”
Parra-Hernandez, 48, has lived in the area for 34 years with no criminal record — nearly the same amount of time Lorenzo Salgado Araujo spent in Houston before an ICE agent shot and killed him in July, according to Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL Houston. He said Parra-Hernandez was heavily sedated because of pain in his feet, and FIEL advocates were worried that ICE would bill his family for the medical treatment.
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Kim Bruno, the family’s attorney, said her priority Sunday was to get Parra-Hernandez out of ICE custody, as investigations proceed to determine whether a crime occurred.
“These circumstances are critical,” Bruno told the Chronicle. “We are working as quickly as possible.”
Natxielly Castañeda, Parra’s niece, described her uncle as a hardworking introvert who is afraid of getting a traffic ticket. For the past 34 years, Parra-Hernandez’s days have consisted of waking up, driving to work, laboring in the sun and coming home to relax and unwind, Castañeda told the Chronicle.
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Castañeda recalled hearing her uncle had fainted from the pain of having two broken legs. Retelling that detail brought her to tears.
“What he did yesterday was human instinct, just to get out of the car and run, especially if you’re being chased by unmarked cars,” Castañeda said. “This is happening to Miguel, but this could happen to anyone … It’s known (ICE) is in our Hispanic communities. They are chasing people just for the color of their skin, and that’s inhumane. His only crime yesterday was for him to get up at 7 ’o clock in the morning and go to work.”
The ICE statement said Parra-Hernandez is in the U.S. without permission. However, agents had been trying to arrest another man in the vehicle, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who had a history of arrests, convictions and deportations, and had an active final deportation order, the statement said.
Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows Parra-Hernandez and Mendoza-Cervantes exiting a white pickup truck near the intersection of Clay Road and Texas 6 and taking off in different directions, the Chronicle reported Saturday. Mendoza-Cervantes flees toward a gas station and disappears from view, but Parra-Hernandez runs toward another pickup truck in a strip center.
A Jeep Cherokee is then seen turning off Clay Road, jumping a median and entering the parking lot. The vehicle approaches Parra-Hernandez, drives by him and stops. The pickup truck in the strip center blocks the sight of a collision, but Parra-Hernandez is seen lying on the ground once it moves away a moment later.
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Residents on Sunday held up signs that read “The World is Watching” and “I’d rather die standing than live on my knees,” near the site where Parra-Hernandez was struck.
Leticia Gutierrez, the Democratic candidate for Texas’ 9th Congressional district, said if an unmarked car were chasing her, she’d pull out her gun.
“I mean is that what we’re waiting for?” Gutierrez said at the event. “Are we waiting for more chaos to continue to move here when what really is needed here is some compassion and honest conversations around how to make this better, not to continue to murder people in the street.”
Espinosa commended Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones Sunday for vowing to remove all Flock cameras from her precinct – a move Espinosa said will benefit public safety.
“They claim to be for public safety,” Espinosa said about ICE. He said what happened to Parra-Hernandez months after Salgado was shot to death in Houston shows the agency is for the opposite of public safety.
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“He wants us to keep fighting, he wants us to stay strong and he told us to take care of ourselves,” Espinosa said of Parra-Hernandez.
Castañeda said for the past five years she has been giving soundbaths, a meditative session where people are immersed in instruments to relax the nervous system. Most of her clients are Hispanic, she said. Most of them have stopped coming.
“To realize the little things they can do for themselves, they’ve just stopped doing it,” she said.