ICE vehicle runs over Houston man with handcuffed witnesses in the back seat

An unmarked ICE vehicle struck and injured a man in Houston on Saturday, and the only witnesses inside the vehicle were two handcuffed detainees in the back seat. Advocates and attorneys now fear those witnesses — one of them a green-card applicant with no criminal record — will be deported before the district attorney's office can interview them.

At a Wednesday news conference, family members identified one of the men as Luis Delfín Enríquez, 48, who was on his way to breakfast with employees when apprehended, according to his sister Nidia Delfín. She said her brother has no arrest warrants, owns a small company that hires people from the community, and was in the process of obtaining permanent residency. She has seen videos of the incident on social media and urged other community witnesses to come forward.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told NBC News that videos gathered by his office suggest the victim, Miguel Parra Hernandez, was struck intentionally as he fled on foot. 'This was an intentional striking and running over of the person by the vehicle, and in that case, that is an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Texas,' Teare said. His office is seeking to interview the witnesses.

ICE has called allegations of an intentional strike 'RECKLESS and FALSE.' A senior Homeland Security official said officers at the scene wore body cameras and that the agency is reviewing video in an internal investigation. Cesar Espinosa of FIEL Houston, representing Parra's family, said any bodycam footage should go immediately to the district attorney. Security video obtained by NBC affiliate KPRC shows the unmarked vehicle jumping a median and swerving toward Parra's path before a man is left lying on the pavement.

A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday found that Customs and Border Protection and ICE have never developed operational guidance on how personnel should use body cameras — without it, the GAO warned, personnel 'will fail to use the cameras as required under policy.' The Trump administration issued bodycam guidance for vehicle stops two weeks earlier. DHS and ICE did not respond to questions about the video's release, plans to deport the witnesses, or the status of the officer who drove the vehicle.

The agency investigating itself holds the footage, the witnesses sit in its custody, and the local prosecutor charged with the case learns the details from reporters. The two men who watched from the back seat can be placed on the next removal flight by the same authority whose driver is under investigation.