ICE agent Christian Castro is facing criminal charges for allegedly shooting a Minnesota man in the leg during an immigration check.
Published August 26, 2026
A U.S. judge has rejected a request to force the extradition of a federal immigration agent accused of shooting and killing a man during an immigration raid in Minnesota and lying about the incident.
Wednesday’s decision concerns the case of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Christian Castro, who has been held in a Texas county jail since May.
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The state of Minnesota is seeking extradition to face charges of assault and false reporting of a crime in Hennepin County, which covers Minneapolis.
Under Texas law, the state cannot detain a person subject to an extradition order for more than 90 days. At that point, the suspect must be transported or released. Castro’s appointment deadline is set to expire on Thursday.
Minnesota argued in a lawsuit this month that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, refused to approve the extradition for political reasons.
But in Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said he could not intervene because Abbott had not yet taken any action and therefore had not yet broken any law.
“The record reflects only that Governor Abbott neither agreed nor refused to sign the extradition warrant regarding Castro,” Rodriguez wrote.
Castro is accused of fatally shooting Julio Cesar Sosascelis during a Jan. 14 immigration raid in Minnesota as part of a mass deportation campaign under President Donald Trump.
Starting in December, President Trump oversaw a large-scale deployment of federal agents to Midwestern states called Operation Metro Surge.
The operation lasted less than three months and sparked protests and allegations of freedom rights violations from residents and monitoring groups.
Prosecutors said Castro fired a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, hitting Sosascelis in the leg.
He and another agent then accused Sosascelis and another man of attacking federal authorities with broomsticks and snow shovels. These allegations were later disproved after a video of the incident was released. The criminal charges against Sosascelis were later dropped.
Todd Lyons, then acting director of ICE, acknowledged in February that agents appeared to have made “untrue statements.” Mr. Castro and his second deputy have been placed on administrative leave.
Mr. Castro is currently being held in Brownsville, Texas. Authorities in Minnesota warned him that he could flee the country if released after making phone calls to a woman in Mexico from prison.
During the phone call, Castro discussed “marrying his girlfriend and buying a house in Mexico upon his release,” according to the Minnesota complaint.
Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed an application for a temporary restraining order to block Mr. Castro’s planned release and force Governor Abbott to sign an extradition warrant.
Ellison argued that Abbott’s decision not to act was a way to support Trump’s mass deportation campaign and circumvent federal extradition laws.
“For nearly three months, Greg Abbott has refused to extradite Christian Castro, the ICE agent accused of shooting and killing a Minnesota man in his home, to Minnesota,” Ellison said in a social media post.
“Abbott has a legal obligation to return him. Instead, he chose to ignore the law.”
