Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher on Harris County Grand Jury Indictment of ICE Officer for Striking Miguel Parra Hernández

Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) released the following statement after a Harris County Grand Jury indicted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Miguel Parra Hernández. “No one is above the law, including the people sworn to enforce it.  Today’s indictment sends a clear message to Miguel, his family, and every family in Houston: what happened to him was wrong, and the people responsible will answer for it.  I am grateful for Sheriff Ed Gonzalez’s and District Attorney Sean Teare’s leadership, and for reminding Harris County residents what law and order is, and what it is not. “This incident was not an accident.  It was the predictable result of an agency that rushed thousands of people into the field without the training this job demands.  Our neighbors keep paying the price for that recklessness, here in Houston and across the country.  In this case, body camera footage made the truth clear, and every ICE officer in the field should wear one.  Cameras can show us what went wrong after the fact.  Training and vetting can stop it from happening in the first place. “That is why I introduced the Freeze ICE Act —to stop ICE from putting more untrained, unvetted officers on our streets until the agency proves it can operate safely and within the law.  ICE has become an out-of-control agency, and its aggression against our neighbors betrays the families and communities we represent, as well as the Constitution we have all sworn to support and defend.  I will continue to do everything I can to rein in this agency.” Earlier this month, an ICE officer ran over Parra Hernández, severely injuring him and leaving him hospitalized with a broken leg, as well as injuries to his hip and ankle.  Reports have shown that ICE failed to notify his family and they learned what happened from a witness.  For more than 30 years, Parra Hernández has called Houston home.  He has no criminal record and was not the intended target of ICE’s operation, yet he remains in ICE custody. In February, Congresswoman Fletcher introduced the Freeze ICE Act , H.R. 7392, to stop the rapid recruitment of unvetted individuals at ICE.  In March, she introduced an amendment to a previous DHS funding proposal to institute a hiring freeze at ICE.  In the case of Parra Hernández, body camera footage was critical to ensuring officials had immediate access to sufficient evidence to uncover the truth of the events that took place.