What's next for ICE agent charged in Houston-area operation

Fox 26 News at 9 starts now. Good evening, thanks for joining us here tonight. I'm Anthony Antoine. We begin with our top story of the day, and it's been trending on Fox 26 Houston all day. A grand jury has indicted an ICE agent accused of hitting a man with his vehicle in West Harris County. Now, the dash cam video you're looking at right now shows exactly what happened on Clay Road on October 10th. The Harris County DA's office says the video shows ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales Running over Miguel Parra Hernandez, Officer Morales called 911 afterwards, telling the dispatcher that Hernandez hit his car. And here's the audio. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. So we're following this guy, trying to pull him over. He jumped out of the vehicle. I tried to get around him, and he hit my car, part of his car. So was it vehicle versus pedestrian, is that correct? Morales is now charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors say Morales was a recent surge hire for ICE and they haven't received any of his training records. During today's announcement, District Attorney Sean Teer addressed that indictment. ICE has progressively begun deporting A number of the material witnesses to this case, despite our objections, despite our acknowledgement that they are. So we are aware of at least two that have already been deported. One of them, we had to fly down an investigator to Port Isabel hours before they deported him less than a week after this crash. ICE is pushing back, releasing this full statement there on your screen. It says, this is nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians. Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other federal agencies. Local governments do not have the authority to run such an investigation. And allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra Hernandez intentionally are reckless and false. The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical code. As our brave law enforcement officers arrest and remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our communities, America can be proud of the professionalism our officers bring to the job day in and day out. So we have Sacher Gray now joining us here to break down exactly what happens next here, Sacher. Hey, that's always the question. What is next? Well, the first thing on the agenda is that Mario Morales will have his arraignment on Monday. And then within 30 days, that's when the timer starts ticking. The defense's first move will be to file what's called a notice of removal. We spoke to a former federal prosecutor who broke it down for us. And they said that would essentially bring the question to a federal judge of whether or not this case should move to federal court. Now, the defense will likely argue what's called Supremacy Clause Immunity. So that basically says that Morales as an ICE agent was on the job and legally and federally authorized to do what he did. Now Morales must prove that he was doing his official duty and did no more than what was necessary and proper. So again, the question comes down to the judge on whether or not there are grounds to move this case into federal court. We spoke to Morales' defense team today about their reaction to this grand jury indictment. In this politically charged environment, this being the last day of early voting, I'm not surprised at all that the district attorney selected or elected to do this today. That aside, Mr. Morales is an individual who is entitled to his constitutional rights. Not to be made a spectacle of, and we will vigorously defend him, not in the public eye, not in the political arena, but in the courtroom. Yeah, Morales's defense attorney tells us the arraignment is expected for Monday, again, as we said before. So the time is ticking, and then he will enter a plea of not guilty. Then from there, that's when the defense team will officially begin the process of working to move this into a federal courtroom. All right, so this sounds like there's a lot of steps that got to take place here. But again, we're looking towards what happens next with this story. Thank you so much for that.