Documentation from an immigration advocacy group and a lawyer who consulted with the family indicates that the individual whom federal immigration authorities identified as their intended target — during an incident last weekend in Houston in which an agent's SUV struck a man — had in fact passed away in 2017.

The agency characterised the October 10 encounter as a targeted arrest operation for Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, during which one of its agents struck and injured 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernández. According to a prior release from the agency, officers moved to stop a vehicle, after which both occupants fled on foot. According to a statement from the ICE spokesperson, Hernandez broke away from the officers attempting to detain him and moved into the path of an ICE vehicle, which struck him.

Parra sustained a range of trauma to his hip, leg, and ankle from the impact — a fracture among them — as his family and representatives confirmed.

ICE released a statement that carried a photograph of the individual the agency identified as Mendoza-Cervantes, with the word "wanted" printed across the image in bold white capital letters. A woman who identified herself as the daughter of the individual named by ICE as Mendoza-Cervantes contacted an immigrant civil rights organisation to say the photograph in question actually depicted her late father.

Speaking at a Friday press briefing, Cesar Espinosa — who heads the organisation FIEL Houston — relayed that the woman had identified the man depicted in the widely circulated image as her father, José Hector Jimenez Mendoza, a person whose death had occurred close to a decade prior during an attempt to enter the United States, and that upon encountering his photograph on news platforms and the ICE website alongside notices indicating authorities were seeking him, she had reached out to the group in a distressed state.

FIEL's complete documentation was passed along to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, the spokesperson noted. Mendoza's death in 2017 was first reported by a television news outlet, whose account included a statement from his daughter, Jamie Jimenez, conveying that the family had been distressed to find him depicted as a living fugitive. According to what she told the newspaper, he operated under multiple names, one of which matched the alias on record with ICE.

A Mexican death certificate, obtained from Parra's family, was handed over to both FIEL and attorney Kim Bruno for their records. The document records his full name as J. Hector Jimenez Mendoza, places his passing in 2017, and identifies Laredo, Texas, as where he died. Portions of the death certificate — a document that records parental identities, residential addresses, and the cause of death — had been redacted.

At the same press conference, Bruno characterised the revelation that the individual ICE had named as Mendoza-Cervantes was already dead as something that defied any rational explanation, and raised equal concern about the agency's decision to publish that person's image. Espinosa put forward the view that ICE had mixed that individual up with Parra, adding that the circumstances pointed to one of two possibilities — either someone within the agency had not been truthful, or the two agents involved had somehow been in a position to perceive a person who was no longer alive. Espinosa urged the agency to provide an honest account of the facts.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told a broadcast news outlet on Thursday that the agency held body-camera footage currently under internal review, with no determination yet reached on whether that material would be made available to the public.

During the press conference, Espinosa brought forward the second man who had fled alongside Parra — a figure who gave his name only as "Omar" — and that individual confirmed he had been inside the vehicle with Parra before both left on foot, though he took no questions from reporters.

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security had provided answers, at the time of publication, to questions put to them about Jimenez Mendoza or the remarks attributed to Espinosa.

A probe into whether aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges apply to ICE agents in connection with Parra's injury has been opened by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare. Teare, a Democrat, contended that footage from the incident makes it apparent ICE deliberately drove into and over Parra. The agency flatly denied that its officers struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez on purpose, calling the claim untrue, while Teare indicated he could bring the matter before a grand jury as early as the following week.

According to information passed to a television news outlet on Thursday, the officer at the wheel of the vehicle that struck Parra has been removed from active duty pending an administrative review.

Martínez — one of two men restrained in handcuffs inside the ICE vehicle at the time it collided with Parra — has also retained Bruno as legal counsel. Espinosa noted that none of the three — Delfín, Parra, or José Presa Cañada, who occupied the second seat in the vehicle — held valid immigration documentation.

On Friday, Bruno indicated that soft-tissue injuries sustained by Delfín resulted from being thrown about inside the ICE vehicle while restrained in handcuffs and without a seatbelt during the pursuit of Parra. Held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, Delfín remains in custody there.

On Thursday, Teare disclosed to a news outlet that his office had conducted an interview with Presa at a detention facility in south Texas near the border, gathering what he described as a substantial body of pertinent information from him. Teare added that ICE had notified his office of its intention to deport Presa.