ICE agent accused of assault and lying to justify a shooting arrested in Minneapolis
Christian Castro was detained by Minnesota officials and taken to a county jail
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of lying about the circumstances that led him to wound a Venezuelan during an operation was arrested Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis and taken to a county jail.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed on its X account that at 2.15 p.m. on Wednesday, Agent Christian Castro was arrested on a downtown Minneapolis street and taken to the Hennepin County Jail.
The county prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, confirmed on social media that she had custody of Castro, 52.
Minnesota’s initial efforts to arrest him were complicated when the agent returned to Texas, where he lived. That triggered a request from Minneapolis for his extradition from Texas so he could face pending assault charges. Texas did not immediately respond, as it had on other occasions.
The extradition request then sparked a legal battle between two state governors: Minnesota’s Tim Walz, who sued Texas governor Greg Abbott for delaying the extradition.
At the end of August the dispute was resolved: a district judge sided with Texas, finding that Minnesota had not shown Abbott acted deliberately to delay the extradition of the ICE agent. Throughout the process, the governor had argued there was an ongoing investigation to determine whether the federal agent could be considered a fugitive from justice or had been transferred to Texas as part of his duties.
Castro had been released on bond from the Texas jail where he had been held on charges of lying to investigators about the circumstances in which, on January 14, while taking part in an immigration operation in Minneapolis, he fired at a house — knowing people were inside — and wounded a Venezuelan migrant in the leg.
One of Castro’s lawyers, Daniel Gerdts, told Reuters that under an agreement with Minnesota authorities his client traveled from Texas to turn himself in to prosecutors, but was arrested minutes before reaching the location.
Another of his attorneys, Rolando Cantu, told the news agency that Castro always intended to face the charges pending against him in Minneapolis.
“Gov. Abbott’s attempt to shield Mr. Castro from accountability has failed,” Moriarty wrote. “We look forward to commencing our prosecution.”
The charges
The January 14 incident occurred when ICE was deployed in Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota that began in late 2025 with about 3,000 heavily armed, masked officers traveling in unmarked vehicles.
While it was active, the operation drew large protests and immigration agents were linked to several shootings, including two incidents in which U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by Trump administration immigration officers.
Castro told federal investigators that César Sosa Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan, and another man had attacked him with a shovel and a broom when he arrived at the house. But security camera footage contradicted his account, according to court documents. Children were in the house.
After the incident, a Minnesota judge found there was enough evidence to charge the agent with four counts of assault with a firearm stemming from the confrontation with the Venezuelan migrant, and a misdemeanor count of lying to his superiors at the Department of Homeland Security to justify the shooting.
That led the magistrate to issue a nationwide arrest warrant that was executed in Texas on May 29, 2026, when the agent was arrested by the Texas Rangers. Since then, Castro had been detained in a jail in Cameron County, on the border, awaiting Abbott’s decision on a possible extradition to Minnesota. After receiving no response, Minnesota filed suit to have Castro transferred.
On Thursday, the agent appeared for the first time in a Minneapolis court. He is expected to have his initial hearing on Friday in a district court to face his federal indictment.
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