After a vehicle driven by a federal immigration officer struck a man on Saturday, people close to the injured man — together with community advocates — urged that witnesses be shielded from deportation proceedings, while also presenting accounts that diverge from what authorities have described.

According to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Miguel Parra-Hernandez stepped into the path of an agent's vehicle at a moment when officers were in the process of detaining a separate individual, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes. According to the ICE spokesperson, both men occupied the same vehicle, with Parra-Hernandez leaving the area after officers attempted to pull the car over.

According to FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa, Parra-Hernandez had no prior acquaintance with the individual ICE sought to detain, and the two were travelling in separate vehicles at the time. Espinosa noted that the other occupant of the vehicle had no connection to the ICE inquiry, and called on law enforcement to move away from the practice of detaining people based on a general physical description alone, stating that physical appearance cannot, by itself, confirm a person's identity.

At a Wednesday news conference, Espinosa described the practice of detaining people based on their vehicle type while commuting as racial profiling, a characterization she said applies to current enforcement activity. Separately, immigration authorities stated that Mendoza-Cervantes was targeted for detention on the basis of a prior criminal record and an outstanding removal order. Court records from both Dallas County and Harris County returned no criminal history tied to Mendoza-Cervantes when reviewed by a news outlet.

A DHS spokesperson, addressing the matter on Saturday, told a news outlet that the account put forward by ICE described agents on surveillance duty observing both their intended target and Miguel Parra-Hernandez board a vehicle together, at which point agents moved to carry out a traffic stop. Two individuals brought the vehicle to a halt, then left it and fled the scene on foot.

During the enforcement action, Parra-Hernandez moved into the path of an ICE vehicle and was struck by it. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare subsequently told reporters that his office is weighing felony assault charges against the agent behind the wheel.

Speaking at Wednesday's press conference, Espinosa called for deportation protections to be extended to the witnesses so their cooperation with the investigation could continue. DHS chose not to address questions about potential criminal charges, though a department spokesperson pushed back on claims of deliberate harm, stating in a written release that allegations portraying the vehicle contact as intentional were both unfounded and inaccurate, and that ICE personnel operate under obligations of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct.

Separately, advocacy organisation FIEL reported that Parra-Hernandez suffered three fractures to his right leg along with injuries to his left leg, and remains in detention while undergoing medical treatment. Rodolfo Parra, brother of Parra-Hernandez, urged anyone holding a position of authority to call on immigration enforcement to keep his brother in place rather than transfer him, given what the family described as a fragile health condition, while also noting that efforts to pursue justice on his behalf were ongoing.