ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting is released from Texas jail

Key Points:

• Christian Castro, an ICE officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during a Minneapolis immigration crackdown, was released from a Texas jail after a judge declined to order his extradition to Minnesota.
• Castro is accused of firing a gun through a Minneapolis home door, injuring Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, and falsely reporting that Sosa-Celis and another man attacked an ICE officer.
• Minnesota authorities arrested Castro in Texas and sought his extradition, but under Texas law, he had to be released after 90 days without extradition approval, which Governor Greg Abbott has withheld pending an internal investigation.
• The U.S. District Judge ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction to intervene until a violation by Governor Abbott occurs, noting that extradition laws do not specify a timeframe for the governor’s decision.
• Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison criticized Abbott for not extraditing Castro, accusing him of turning Texas into a sanctuary state, while Abbott dismissed Ellison’s legal arguments and threatened to send immigrants to Minnesota as retaliation.