A federal immigration officer charged with aggravated assault after he ran over a Mexican man with his car in Houston will turn himself in on Monday, according to his attorney.
Mario Alberto Morales, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old construction worker, with his unmarked SUV on Oct. 10, as he chased Parra Hernandez through a parking lot. A grand jury indicted Morales on Friday on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Morales is planning to turn himself in at a courthouse sometime on Monday, David Lindenmuth, his attorney, told The Associated Press. Lindenmuth previously told the AP that the incident was “clearly just an accident” and that local officials had “invented a crime out of thin air.”
Parra Hernandez broke his leg and is recovering at a rehabilitation facility while in federal custody, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told reporters on Friday.
ICE has said Parra Hernandez ran in front of Morales’ car.
Previously released surveillance camera video shows Morales’ vehicle drive over a median and strike Parra Hernandez as he runs away.
Teare played footage from Morales’ body camera on Friday that showed the agent making sharp turns with his steering wheel. He then stops and exits the vehicle and turns toward Parra Hernandez, who is lying on the ground, screaming.
“I was coming in, and I hit him with the car,” Morales can be heard saying after another ICE agent arrives.
Parra Hernandez told deputies that he fled the traffic stop when Morales started pulling on a mask, and Morales “threw the car” at him, according to a Harris County Sheriff’s Office incident report reviewed by the AP. Morales told deputies that he did not brake before he hit Parra Hernandez, but that he did not intentionally strike him, according to the report.
ICE said after the incident that the target of the operation was a man named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who the agency said was seen getting into a car with Parra Hernandez. Mendoza-Cervantes’ daughter told the immigrants' rights group FIEL that her father has been dead for nearly a decade.
Morales is among a small handful of federal agents who have been criminally charged for wounding people during the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown. ICE agent Christian Castro pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he lied to the FBI after he shot and wounded a Venezuelan man as immigration agents swept Minneapolis earlier this year.
Many other ICE shootings, including some that were fatal, have not ended in charges for the agents involved.
Morales, 33, has served as an ICE agent for a little over a year, according to Lindenmuth.
Teare said on Friday that authorities have a “significant amount of information” on Morales, and that, in his experience, law enforcement agencies would not hire someone with his background. He did not elaborate.
Morales was charged with a misdemeanor in 2013 for stealing four DVDs, according to Harris County Court records. Those charges were dismissed after he paid a $270 fine and struck a plea deal.
Morales unsuccessfully ran to represent Texas' 34th congressional district in this year's election cycle under the name “Bam Morales,” which Lindenmuth confirmed. Morales served in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division and later as a corrections officer and law enforcement officer, he wrote in a Ballotpedia candidate survey. He wrote that his top priorities were veterans' rights, economic issues and service guided by the Christian principles of “compassion, integrity, service, and accountability.” He listed illegal immigration as one of the country's greatest challenges.
Morales also wrote in the survey that he was endorsed by an organization called “Make America Godlier Again."
Morales appeared at a 2024 Christian conference held by televangelist Johnson Suleman. In video of the conference, Morales appears to act as a Spanish translator as Suleman serves free food and “extends his touch of love to migrants."
“I want to pray for the immigrants,” Suleman said, as Morales translated those words into Spanish. “I bless you. May the lord grant your request and open your doors.”
Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, left, and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, right, attend a news conference Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Houston, announcing the indictment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Mario Alberto Morales by a Harris County grand jury. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Upon his arrival at the Mexico City Grand Prix, British driver Lewis Hamilton claimed there has never been a driver like him in the history of motorsport.
Perhaps his assertion is not entirely off the mark.
The seven-time world champion Hamilton rebounded from a wretched Friday practice to capture pole position on Saturday. Hamilton edged out Mercedes' George Russell and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
“I feel great, that feels good, I am at a loss of words,” Hamilton said. “We did a pretty good job with the setup in the weekend. It feels special for me in Mexico, my first pole for Ferrari here.”
He has extended his own record for Formula 1 pole positions to 105.
“Wow, to have pole here, I mean, I don’t even know if I’ve had a pole here before,”said Hamilton, who had pole position in Mexico in 2016. "It feels special to be in Mexico and get that. My first, I think this is my first pole with Ferrari. And 105... I like that number.”
Furthermore, at 41 years and some months Hamilton was the fifth oldest driver to secure an F1 pole position and the oldest since Mario Andretti did it in 1982 at age 42. Nino Farina holds the record at 47 years, two months.
“When there’s a will, there’s a way, I think it’s all in the mind. For sure, you might feel aches and pains but I do all those different things that you can do to try and keep yourself young and fit," Hamilton said. “But I love what I do. And that love is not gone. I wake up every day thinking about it. I dream about it.”
This marks the Italian team’s first pole position since Hungary last year, 30 races ago.
Hamilton, who has crowned himself world champion twice in Mexico, will aim to become the first Ferrari driver to win a race from pole position since Carlos Sainz in Mexico in 2024.
On Friday during the second practice, he suffered a loss of power that forced him to retire.
“Embarking on this journey with Ferrari, and all the challenges and ups and downs we’ve had. Even yesterday was challenging, when the car stopped on track and we lost the long runs that everyone got to do.” Hamilton said. “I didn’t get to do a long run. But we’ve really done a good job with the set-up over the weekend.”
Kimi Antonelli could become the youngest world champion in F1 history. He qualified fifth, demonstrating his car’s setup was optimal.
The 20-year-old Italian, who missed Thursday’s media session because of a viral infection, said he was still recovering but hoped to be at his best for what could be a special Sunday.
“I’m going to bombard myself with melatonin, so I hope I can sleep about 10 hours, with any luck,” said Antonelli, who will start fourth after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty Saturday for an incident involving Liam Lawson.
“It’s a new one, that penalty, but yeah, we’ll keep inventing new ones, I guess,” Verstappen said.
Antonelli, who won the United States Grand Prix last week from pole, can finish as low as ninth on Sunday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to surpass the record set by Sebastian Vettel, who became world champion the first time at 23.
Russell began the season as Mercedes’ No. 1 driver and won the first race of the year in Australia, but Antonelli has since won nine grands prix.
Antonelli can also become the first Italian driver to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. while Mercedes can clinch the constructors’ title on Sunday for the first time since 2021.
Fernando Alonso, who arrived in Mexico amid controversy after claiming that the bottom third of F1 drivers lack quality, was eliminated after completing just four laps in the first qualifying session.
The Spanish Aston Martin driver was instructed to stop shortly before reaching the pit lane, and he made no secret of his annoyance.
“I’m only a hundred meters from the pit lane entrance,” the two-time world champion said over the radio, while striking the steering wheel with his hands in frustration.
The Mexico City GP does not hold fond memories for Alonso, as he has failed to finish the last four races.
Cadillac driver Sergio Pérez will mark his 300th Formula 1 Grand Prix on home soil, but if he wants to give his millions of fans something to cheer about, he will have an uphill battle ahead of him.
Pérez was eliminated in the first qualifying session (Q1) and will start from the second-to-last position on the grid, ahead only of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas.
Earlier this week, the 36-year-old driver signed a contract extension that will keep him with Cadillac through 2029.
See AP’s full auto racing coverage here
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the qualifying session for the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix auto race in Mexico City, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Pole position winner Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain, center, second fastest Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain, left, and third placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco pose for photos at the end of the qualifying session for the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix auto race in Mexico City, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy steers his car during the qualifying session for the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix auto race in Mexico City, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the qualifying session for the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix auto race in Mexico City, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain celebrates after he clocked the fastest time during the qualifying session for the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix auto race in Mexico City, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
