Indicted ICE Officer Mario Morales Surrenders in Houston, Bond Set at $30,000 at Monday Court Appearance
The surrender this desk reported as expected on Monday happened. ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales, indicted on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the Oct. 10 Clay Road case, surrendered in Houston, appeared in court Monday morning and had his bond set at $30,000. He will be booked into jail, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.
HOUSTON - ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales surrendered in Houston on Monday and appeared in court in the morning, where his bond was set at $30,000, FOX 26 Houston reported. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said he will be booked into jail. A grand jury indicted Morales on Friday on one charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon - a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison - in the Oct. 10 incident near Clay Road and Highway 6.
The underlying case, as officials have described it: officers responded around 7:20 a.m. on Oct. 10 after a white truck drove the wrong way down Clay Road and stopped; two men got out and ran. One escaped eastbound. The second, Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, was struck by an ICE vehicle. He underwent surgery for a broken leg and was still hospitalized as of Friday, District Attorney Sean Teare said; his attorney, Kim Bruno, said he suffered fractures and nerve damage and faces mobility limitations and chronic pain. Teare has said Parra Hernandez has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years, has no criminal record and had no pending deportation order.
The two accounts of the strike remain opposed, and both were on the record again Monday. 'The evidence that we have in this case is as clear as any I've ever prosecuted or investigated,' Teare said at Friday's news conference. Morales's attorney, David Lindenmuth, calls the incident an accident and the prosecution politically motivated: 'That is an accident. It is not a crime.' ICE, in its latest statement, called the case 'nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians.'
Morales was one of ICE's surge hires in August 2025, and the district attorney's office says it has not received his training records. The indictment is an accusation, not a conviction; the case now proceeds in Harris County court on the $30,000 bond set Monday.
