Texas Rangers arrested an ICE agent on Friday. He is charged with shooting a man in a Minneapolis raid.
The agent's name is Christian Castro. He is 52 years old. He works for ICE. ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE finds and deports people with no papers. Minnesota cops tracked Castro down in Texas this week. Texas Rangers took him into custody on Texas soil Friday morning.
This case matters far beyond Minnesota. Castro is a federal agent. He now faces big felony charges. ICE does the same kind of work all along Texas and the border. His arrest raises a hard question. Who watches the agents when things go wrong?
Castro faces four counts of second-degree assault with a gun. That charge can mean years in prison if a jury finds him guilty. He also faces one smaller charge for lying about the case. Cops call it falsely reporting a crime. The case number is 27-CR-26-12537 in Hennepin County, Minnesota.
The charges go back to January 14. That night, ICE agents moved in on two men. It happened near a home in Minneapolis. The push was called "Operation Metro Surge." It ran for three months. A federal agency called DHS led it. The goal was to find and deport people with no papers in the Twin Cities. Prosecutors say Castro fired his gun through the front door of the home. They say he knew people had just run inside. The bullet went through the door. It hit a man named Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg. Then it hit a wall inside a kid's room.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the two men had a legal right to be in Minnesota. She said cops got the wrong men. At first, ICE said the two men had attacked an officer. They said the men used a shovel and a broom. Both men got charged with assault. Prosecutors later dropped those charges for good. They said new proof did not match ICE's story.
Video came out in February and April. It showed one man standing near the home with a shovel. He then dropped it. It showed the other man running toward the house with empty hands. A cop tackled one of them. The video did not match what ICE first said happened.
In February, ICE boss Todd Lyons spoke up. He said the video showed two officers may have lied under oath. Both officers were put on leave. The agency looked into it. County prosecutors say Castro is one of those two agents.
Castro is the second agent charged in this operation. Last month, prosecutors charged another ICE agent too. His name is Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. They say he pointed a gun at the heads of two people in a car.
"Today's arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro," Moriarty said. She thanked state cops for their work on the case.
Minnesota's top lawyer, Keith Ellison, also spoke about the arrest. "Nobody is above the law, including agents of the federal government," Ellison said. "I am pleased to hear Christian Castro has been taken into custody." Ellison added that Castro "remains innocent unless and until proven guilty."
Castro has not been found guilty of any crime. Under the law, he is innocent until proven guilty. DHS has not said a word about the case. Court papers do not list a lawyer for Castro yet.
The case could still move to federal court. The County Attorney's Office says that move is likely. Even so, they say they would still run the case. They would use Minnesota law. If a jury finds Castro guilty, the president could not pardon him. That is because the charges are state, not federal.
For now, Castro sits in jail. His case is still moving through the courts. El Tejano will keep following this story.
