A federal immigration officer wanted in the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s Minnesota crackdown was arrested Friday in Texas, authorities said.
ICE Agent Arrested in Texas
Christian Castro, 52, of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was taken into custody 11 days after Minneapolis prosecutors charged him with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the January 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located Castro in Texas, and the Texas Rangers assisted in the arrest in Cameron County, near the Mexican border. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said its agents were not involved in the arrest.
Background on the Shooting
Castro is accused of firing through a front door and shooting Sosa-Celis in the thigh after chasing another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the apartment where both men lived. Prosecutors confirmed that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S.
Federal authorities initially claimed Sosa-Celis and Aljorna attacked an officer with a broom handle and snow shovel. Those charges were later dismissed, and ICE and the Justice Department opened investigations into whether officers lied about the incident.
Prosecution and ICE Response
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called Castro’s arrest “a critical step forward in our prosecution.” Castro is the second federal agent charged during Operation Metro Surge.
ICE said the charges were “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt,” while the DHS Inspector General’s Office, a watchdog agency separate from ICE, assisted with the arrest.
Castro has not been listed with an attorney in court records. ICE stated that the U.S. attorney’s office is investigating statements by officers, who could face disciplinary action or criminal prosecution.
Video Evidence
Minneapolis released city-owned security footage showing the moments before Sosa-Celis’s shooting. The video shows a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, a chase, and a brief scuffle near the front steps. The exact moment Sosa-Celis was shot is unclear.
Operation Metro Surge and Controversy
Operation Metro Surge sent thousands of federal officers to Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of Trump’s national deportation campaign. While the administration considered it a success, tensions rose during the campaign.
The deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal officers sparked mass unrest and questions about officer conduct.
Ongoing Investigations
The county is also investigating the killings of Good and Pretti and has sued the Trump administration to gain access to evidence from these cases and the Sosa-Celis shooting. Last month, another ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was charged with assault for allegedly pointing a gun at people in a car on a highway; his lawyer disputes the charges.
