State Lawyer Common Keith Ellison has known as for the switch of an ICE agent accused of mendacity a couple of nonfatal capturing.
Revealed On 18 Aug 2026
Minnesota’s lawyer normal is suing the governor of Texas to power the extradition of a federal agent charged with capturing and wounding a person throughout President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Minnesota Lawyer Common Keith Ellison argued that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has refused to fulfil his “necessary” obligation to switch Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, in order that he could stand trial.
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“Governor Abbott has withheld the warrant and held up Castro’s extradition for practically three months,” Ellison advised reporters on Tuesday. “He has no discretion to say no to take action.”
Ellison additionally requested the US district courtroom in southern Texas to bar Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from permitting Castro’s launch from jail.
Castro’s case has turn out to be a part of a nationwide debate over transparency and extreme violence throughout Trump’s mass deportation marketing campaign.
The agent was concerned within the January 14 capturing of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man dwelling in Minnesota. Officers allege that Castro fired a gun into Sosa-Celis’s entrance door, hanging him within the leg.
Initially, the Trump administration stated the brokers had fired in self-defence, accusing Sosa-Celis and two different folks of attacking officers with a brush and a snow shovel throughout an immigration enforcement operation.
Then-Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem went as far as to name the incident the “tried homicide” of an ICE agent.
However video emerged contradicting the ICE brokers’ testimony, and in February, federal prosecutors dropped the charges that they had filed in opposition to Sosa-Celis and his housemate, Alfredo Aljorna.
In an announcement that month, ICE’s then-Appearing Director Todd Lyons confirmed that Castro and a second ICE agent appeared to have lied concerning the incident. The 2 officers have been subsequently positioned on administrative depart.
“A joint assessment by ICE and the Division of Justice (DOJ) of video proof has revealed that sworn testimony supplied by two separate officers seems to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons stated in an announcement on the time.
In Might, the Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace charged Castro with 4 counts of second-degree assault and one depend of falsely reporting a criminal offense.
“Mr Castro is an ICE agent. However his federal badge doesn’t make him immune from state fees for his felony conduct in Minnesota,” Hennepin County Lawyer Mary Moriarty stated in an announcement.
Castro was arrested on Might 29 in Texas, and he has remained in detention since.
However Ellison has expressed concern that Texas officers – together with Abbott, an ally of President Trump – might search Castro’s launch reasonably than have him face trial.
The Minnesota lawyer normal described Castro as a flight threat, prone to flee throughout the US border to Mexico.
“We all know that [Castro] has some connections to Mexico, and we all know that he has some considered sooner or later going to Mexico,” Ellison stated. “So, we do consider he’s a threat.”
Abbott’s workplace advised The Related Press in an announcement that it will not touch upon “pending extradition issues”.
Below Texas regulation, Ellison stated the 52-year-old Castro could possibly be launched from custody as quickly as subsequent week – 90 days after he was detained – if Abbott doesn’t comply with his extradition.
The Sosa-Celis capturing was one in every of a number of circumstances this 12 months that prompted questions on using lethal power throughout immigration proceedings.
The Minneapolis space was the topic of one in every of Trump’s most intense immigration enforcement campaigns, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
Lasting from December to February, Operation Metro Surge noticed what critics thought-about to be escalating ways from immigration officers, together with warrantless home searches.
Two US residents, Renee Good and Alex Fairly, have been killed by brokers throughout protests in opposition to the operation.
