ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales turned himself in Monday after being indicted last week for running over a man who was on foot. The case has put Morales’ career record under scrutiny and drawn attention to the administration’s hiring spree last year to fill immigration positions.
Morales, 33, was released on $30,000 bail after a hearing before District Judge Matthew Peneguy in Harris County, Texas. He was charged Friday with a second-degree felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The case has intensified criticism of the administration’s attempt to quickly increase the ranks of ICE officers to fulfill President Donald Trump’s mass deportation pledge, just as voters head to the polls for the midterm elections.
Last year, several Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News that some of ICE’s recruits had failed to meet hiring standards, including having disqualifying criminal histories or lacking physical or academic requirements. DHS told NBC News at the time that most of its new hires were former law enforcement officers.
Earlier this month, the agency announced it would retrain thousands of its agents who had received accelerated training due to the surge in hiring.
The October 10 incident involving Morales and Miguel Parra Hernández was captured on multiple cameras. Harris County Prosecutor Sean Teare said the footage led investigators to believe Morales deliberately ran over Parra to stop him during a pursuit.
Parra is in rehabilitation, supervised by ICE agents, recovering from multiple injuries.
If a similar incident occurred at a Harris County agency, Teare told NBC News on Monday, “every single one of these people, whether they were in trouble or not, would be taken off the street and sent back throughout the academy.”
Morales was hired by ICE in August 2025 and had more training than other recruits, said his lawyer, David Lindenmuth. He accused Teare of defamation.
“This Democratic prosecutor has big problems with the conservative GOP’s ICE program, and he’s trying to fight them, but he’s crushing this individual to do it,” Lindenmuth said.
Lindenmuth said the collision with the car was accidental and happened when Morales reacted to avoid hitting a car that was in front of him.
In response to criticism of Morales’ actions and the training of ICE agents, an ICE spokesperson said in an email that “allegations that ICE intentionally struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez are UNINTENDED and FALSE.”
“The men and women of ICE are responsible for upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethical conduct,” the ICE spokesperson said.
Video of the collision captured by cameras from local businesses and bystanders recorded Morales chasing Parra, who gets out of a stopped truck and begins running. Morales’ vehicle made a quick left turn in front of a stopped vehicle and struck Parra.
Morales’ body camera video captures the officer saying, “You got hit by the car, bro,” turning Parra over, straightening his leg, trying to pick him up under his arms and telling others he should be moved into the car.
Teare said Morales’ attempt to move Parra was “reckless.”
“These are not things a law enforcement officer would do to someone they arrested, with or without force, if they were complaining of injuries,” Teare said.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Morales had arrested two people who were handcuffed and sitting in the back of his car without seat belts when the vehicle struck Parra. To Teare, this illustrates problems with the agency’s tactics and lack of proper training and monitoring of ICE agents.
Morales is the first ICE agent indicted in Texas. In May, Minnesota prosecutors indicted ICE agent Christian Castro in connection with the January shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, and he was indicted on federal charges in September for making false statements to investigators about the case.
Before joining ICE, Morales, a native of Brownsville, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, worked several times as a guard. One of those jobs was at the Port Isabel Detention Center, an ICE facility that has historically been the last stop before an immigrant is removed from the country, Lindenmuth said.
Morales started young, working from August 2012 to January 2013 as a corrections officer for Cameron County in Olmito, Texas, Lindenmuth said.
He then joined the Army and worked as a military police officer, but was not deployed during his two years of military service, Lindenmuth said. An Army spokesperson said Morales left the army in 2014 with the rank of private first class.
Morales then spent seven months at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a mid-level correctional officer, overseeing the care and custody of inmates with limited supervision, according to Amanda Hernandez, a TDCJ spokeswoman.
He resigned in 2018 while on probation with the agency for falsifying records, specifically documenting security rounds as completed when they had not been conducted, Hernandez said in an email.
Lindenmuth said he did not immediately have further information about probation.
On Friday, Teare said he “didn’t know of a single agency that would have hired” Morales, having seen his employment record.
Lindenmuth said his client is an ordained pastor of a Christian church. He said Morales studied to become a police chaplain at the Universidad Cristiana Internacional El Shaddai in Dallas and did missionary work in other countries.
“She’s a faith-based person,” Lindenmuth said. “You know, he’s a good person who tries to help people.”
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