By Jonathan Allen
May 29 (Reuters) – A U.S. immigration agent was arrested in Texas on Friday, nearly two weeks after a Minnesota prosecutor took the unusual step of charging him with assaulting a Venezuelan man in a non-fatal shooting in Minneapolis this year.
Christian Castro, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime for shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg on January 14, at the height of President Donald Trump’s aggressive and hotly protested deportation surge in Minnesota.
It is extremely rare for state prosecutors to charge federal law enforcement officials, but Castro, 52, is the second federal official to be charged this year by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the chief state prosecutor in Minneapolis. State officials are attempting to hold the federal government to account for what they say is unconstitutional overreach.
White House officials have repeatedly defended the conduct of ICE agents and said, incorrectly, that they are immune from prosecution for breaking state laws.
Investigators from Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found Castro in Texas and traveled there, Moriarty’s office said in a statement. He was taken into custody on Friday morning by BCA agents and Texas Rangers at a home in Harlingen, Texas, before being put in a Texas jail ahead of a transfer to Minnesota, the BCA said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, called Castro’s prosecution “nothing more than a political stunt,” and said any wrongdoing by Castro “must be handled at the federal level.”
The statement from Moriarty’s office originally said that agents from the DHS’ inspector general’s office, which oversees ICE, had helped capture Castro alongside the Texas Rangers. But a spokesperson for the inspector general’s office said in a statement that this was incorrect, and the office was “not involved in the planning, execution, or conduct of Mr. Castro’s arrest.”
Moriarty’s office later updated its statement, saying the inspector general’s office’s staff were “present at the scene.”
It remains unclear whether the Trump administration will help defend Castro from state prosecution by saying he acted within the limits of his official duties, in which case its lawyers could insist the state trial proceed in a federal courtroom. It was not clear whether Castro had a private attorney.
TWO FEDERAL OFFICIALS CHARGED THIS YEAR
Sosa-Celis was shot during the chaotic weeks of Operation Metro Surge, which saw hundreds of masked, armed agents roaming the streets of Minnesota’s biggest cities looking for immigrants. Also in January, immigration agents shot dead two U.S. citizens on Minneapolis streets on different days: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
In each instance, Trump and other administration officials sided with the federal agents, saying they acted in self-defense, and blamed the victims for the violence, outraging many Minnesotans.
Moriarty is also suing the Trump administration for access to evidence in the killings of Good and Pretti, and is weighing whether to prosecute the agents who killed them.
In the case of Sosa-Celis, DHS later retracted its account of his shooting after saying the ICE agents involved had lied when they said Sosa-Celis, whom Castro had chased, and two other men had attacked Castro outside a house with a shovel. The Justice Department dropped its prosecution of Sosa-Celis and the other men present. Prosecutors say Castro was alone outside the house and fired his gun through its front door, hitting Sosa-Celis.
Two ICE officers, who were not named at the time, were put on administrative leave and may face federal prosecution for false statements. “Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” the DHS spokesperson said in their statement on Friday.
Moriarty’s office has also charged another ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., with two counts of second-degree assault, saying he pointed a gun at a vehicle on February 5 while driving on a Minneapolis highway. He remains on active duty with ICE, his attorney said, after making an initial court appearance last week, where he posted a $100,000 bond.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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