When immigration agents struck a man with an S.U.V. in Houston over the weekend, they said they were chasing an undocumented Mexican man facing deportation and multiple criminal charges. But the photo they shared of their target was of a man whose family says he died almost a decade ago.
In a statement on Saturday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that agents conducting a surveillance operation had seen their target, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, climb into a vehicle driven by Miguel Parra Hernandez. When they tried to pull over the vehicle, Mr. Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old construction worker, and a second man fled on foot.
Surveillance footage captured an agent striking Mr. Parra Hernandez with an S.U.V. from behind as he ran away. The impact shattered the man’s leg, hip and ankle. The second man escaped.
That day, ICE released a photo of the man they said they were seeking and said he had not been captured.
But Jamie Jimenez, of Dallas, said the man in the photo was her father and that he died in 2017. He plunged to his death from a cliff as he fled immigration agents near the southern border, she said.
She told The New York Times in an interview on Wednesday that her family was horrified to see her deceased father depicted as a living fugitive, his face plastered on a Department of Homeland Security “wanted” bulletin that was broadcast on local newscasts. The death of the man pictured in the bulletin has not been previously reported.
Ms. Jimenez said her father’s name was Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza. A Mexican death certificate she provided to The Times states Mr. Jimenez Mendoza was 43 when he died in Laredo, Texas, in October 2017.
Court records showed Mr. Jimenez Mendoza faced the same criminal charges that ICE attributed to Mr. Mendoza-Cervantes: arrests for driving under the influence and unlawful possession of a firearm. His daughter said Mr. Jimenez Mendoza used aliases, including the name ICE released as its target in the Houston operation. She also provided photos of her father, which appear to be the same man in the D.H.S. bulletin.
The newscasts over the weekend “opened deep, deep wounds,” said Ms. Jimenez, adding that she was speaking on behalf of her family. It is painful, she added, “knowing that he is no longer here, that he cannot speak up and defend himself.”
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond Thursday to questions about Mr. Jimenez Mendoza and to requests for additional information about the man ICE is seeking. Public records show several people with variations of the name Jose Mendoza-Cervantes living in Texas. Ms. Jimenez was certain, however, that the man pictured in the bulletin was her father.
ICE has faced criticism from state and local officials over a pattern of violent and deadly traffic stops as the Trump administration has escalated its immigration arrests nationwide. Texas, which has a large unauthorized immigrant population and political leaders aligned with the White House’s deportation campaign, has seen some of the steepest surges in ICE operations.
In Austin, Austin police and Travis County prosecutors have opened an investigation into the shooting of a Venezuelan man by an immigration agent during a September traffic stop. Prosecutors in Harris County, which includes Houston, are investigating the July killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father and construction business owner who had also been on his way to work when he was followed by unmarked ICE vehicles.
Sean Teare, the Harris County district attorney, said his office and the local sheriff’s office were investigating the traffic pursuit that left Mr. Parra Hernandez injured as a possible aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. ICE said Mr. Parra Hernandez had run in front of one of the agency’s vehicles and was struck. But surveillance video appeared to show the SUV veering toward Mr. Parra Hernandez.
Mr. Parra Hernandez, who is undocumented, must undergo multiple surgeries and remains hospitalized.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Parra Hernandez’s brother and supporters said Mr. Parra Hernandez had never crossed paths with Mr. Mendoza-Cervantes. Mr. Parra Hernandez has lived in Houston for 34 years and had never been stopped by immigration authorities, his family said. A search of court records based on his name and age turned up several traffic tickets but no criminal charges.
The passenger in Mr. Parra Hernandez’s vehicle fled and was not captured. At the Wednesday news conference, Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL, an immigrant rights group assisting Mr. Parra Hernandez’s family, displayed a photo of the passenger and said he did not resemble the man in the bulletin.
Mr. Espinosa said that agents were claiming to pursue Mr. Mendoza-Cervantes was a “failure of the system.”
“That they don’t have the correct name, that they don’t know he is deceased in unfathomable,” he said.
ICE said their target was an undocumented Mexican immigrant with a deportation order and described him as a “public safety threat,” citing “four prior arrests for driving under the influence and an arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm.” The agency also said he had been “removed twice and illegally entered our country — a felony — five times.”
Ms. Jimenez, 30, said her father, a pool plumber, had built a life as an undocumented worker in Dallas. He hailed from a small ranch in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí and first crossed illegally into Texas when he was 18. He married her mother and they had two daughters, including Ms. Jimenez. He had been deported and returned to the United States at least twice, she said.
In 1996, court records show, Mr. Jimenez Mendoza was charged with driving under the influence and unlawful possession of a firearm in a Dallas County court. He was fined and assigned community service and probation. Court records show he also had driving while intoxicated charges in Texas in 2003, 2004 and 2017. In May 2017, he was also convicted with giving law enforcement false information.
In the years before his death that October, Mr. Jimenez Mendoza separated from his wife and had become estranged from his daughter and later remarried, Ms. Jimenez said. She described her father as a hard-working man who provided for his loved ones and encouraged her to go to college. Shortly before his death, she had planned to invite him to her college graduation from the University of North Texas.
“We’re all human, we’re all flawed,” she said. “I had already thought of putting water under the bridge, but then of course, he passed.”
Ms. Jimenez said she tries not to think too much about her father’s death because she still has questions about what happened, including who was with him and what his final hours were like.
For her family, there was no mistaking it: The photo in the D.H.S. bulletin was Mr. Jimenez Mendoza. One close family member even wondered whether he could still be alive, she said.
Ms. Jimenez and her family felt compelled to correct the misinformation, she said. “I know he loved me, and I loved him,” she said, crying, “and that gives me peace.”
Georgia Gee, Sheelagh McNeill and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
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