SAVED BY THE BELL

ICE Agent Accused of Framing Shooting Victim Walks Free in Texas

Christian Castro was charged with four counts of assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

An ICE officer facing state charges for allegedly shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and falsely accusing him of a crime was freed from a Texas jail on Thursday after a federal judge declined to order his immediate extradition. Christian Castro, who was sent to Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” immigration crackdown, was charged with assault in Minnesota in May for shooting 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis on Jan. 14. He was also charged with falsely accusing Sosa-Celis and his roommate of attacking an ICE agent with a broom and shovel. Shortly after the shooting, Castro returned to Texas before Minnesota filed charges. But in late May, authorities arrested him in Texas on a Minnesota warrant. Castro was held in Brownsville, Texas, for three months while Minnesota authorities sought extradition, but Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had not approved Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s extradition request. After 90 days of detention, Texas law required Castro’s release. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to force Abbott to act, citing Castro’s flight risk. The judge ruled that Minnesota’s lawsuit was premature because Abbott had not formally denied extradition and faced no fixed federal deadline to decide.