ICE agent charged with shooting in Minnesota could be released from Texas jail

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — An ICE agent charged in Minnesota with firing his gun through a house door, striking a man in his leg, and then lying to justify the shooting, could walk out of a South Texas jail on Thursday if a federal judge does not intervene.

Christian Castro, an agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Minnesota authorities have been seeking to have him extradited since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico.

Texas law says he must be released after 90 days of detention, which is Thursday. Minnesota’s governor and attorney general filed a lawsuit asking a judge to compel Texas to return Castro to their state and to keep the Cameron County sheriff from releasing him until his extradition.

Castro is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

At a federal hearing held Tuesday afternoon in Brownsville before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., attorneys with Minnesota’s Attorney General’s Office argued it would be hard to compel Castro to face charges in their state if he is released, and even harder if he flees.

Rodriguez said he was inclined not to keep the sheriff from releasing Castro, but he said he would provide an order responding to the temporary restraining order on Wednesday.

Attorneys representing the Texas Governor’s Office said the governor has not yet officially decided to deny or grant Minnesota’s extradition request and therefore the lawsuit is premature.

“I think ripeness is a significant issue,” Rodriguez told attorneys.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an internal state investigation to determine if Castro is legally considered a “fugitive.” Trevor W. Ezell, Abbott’s general counsel, also questioned whether the court could impose a deadline for the governor to respond to an extradition request.

“There’s nothing legally left for them to investigate,” Kimberly Ann Svendsen, an attorney representing the Minnesota attorney general, told the judge.

Abbott said last week that he would not respond to the extradition request, citing ongoing investigations of fraud in government social service programs in Minnesota, which Trump used to justify his immigration crackdown there.