ICE Officer Christian Castro Pleads Not Guilty in First Federal Prosecution Tied to Minneapolis Immigration Crackdown

Christian Castro, a 52-year-old U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer, pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in McAllen, Texas, to six counts of making materially false statements to investigators. He turned himself in Thursday evening and was shackled at the wrists, waist and feet for the hearing, according to the Associated Press and CBS News. A judge released him on a $75,000 unsecured bond with a GPS ankle monitor.

The charges stem from a shooting on January 14 during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's immigration enforcement blitz that sent thousands of federal agents into the Twin Cities. Castro and his partner tried to stop a car driven by a then-26-year-old Venezuelan citizen in north Minneapolis, then chased him on foot and tackled him in the front yard of a duplex, according to the unsealed federal indictment. Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, then 24 and living in that duplex, came out during the struggle. As the two men ran back inside and began shutting the front door, Castro stood and fired a single round through it, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg. The bullet continued through the entryway and lodged in a downstairs wall. Two women and two 1-year-old children were inside at the time, according to CBS News and Fox News.

The indictment says Castro told an FBI agent that night that he was attacked by multiple people wielding a broom and a snow shovel, and that he fired while lying on his back after a roughly three-minute struggle. Prosecutors say none of that happened. "No person struck [Castro] with a broom as he described, and no persons wielded the broom and snow shovel as he described," the indictment states, according to PBS. The actual confrontation, according to the indictment, lasted about 11 seconds. Video surveillance surfaced later that contradicted Castro's account, according to ABC News, prompting federal prosecutors to drop assault charges they had initially filed against Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, based on Castro's version of events.

Castro also faces separate state charges in Minnesota, filed in May by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty: four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Those charges triggered a bitter interstate fight. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to sign extradition papers sought by Minnesota, and Castro was held roughly 90 days in a Cameron County jail in Brownsville before being released last week when that holding period expired without extradition, according to The Hill. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Abbott to force extradition, but a federal judge ruled he had no authority to intervene in extradition disputes between states, according to ABC7 News. Moriarty said in a statement that she expects Castro will eventually face Minnesota's charges: "Despite Gov. Abbott's best efforts to shield Mr. Castro, we will see him soon."

The federal charges Castro now faces are notably narrower than what some prosecutors reportedly wanted. According to ProPublica, which reviewed an email from Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans, federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law, a civil rights charge similar to those brought against the Minneapolis police officers convicted in George Floyd's killing. Evans wrote that Justice Department leadership in Washington ordered the case scaled back to false-statements charges only. "This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney," Evans wrote, according to ProPublica. "I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn't enough." A DOJ official told ProPublica that civil rights charges require consultation with the department's civil rights division and that charging decisions are "collaborative and deliberative" and follow the facts and law. The department said it has "not yet reached a conclusion on this matter." ABC News and ABC7 also reported that the episode caused new friction between career prosecutors in Minnesota and DOJ headquarters, and that a career prosecutor involved in the probe was fired, though the circumstances of that firing were not detailed.

Robin Wolpert, an attorney for Sosa-Celis, told the AP that the Justice Department "grossly undercharged this case." Catherine Ahlin-Halverson, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, which is representing Sosa-Celis in a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit against the Trump administration, said in a statement, "Today's indictment is not enough. Julio was shot by Christian Castro, arrested, and falsely prosecuted."

Castro's attorney, David Lindenmuth, pushed back against that narrative after Friday's hearing, urging the public "not to rush to judgment without learning all the facts" and to let his client "have his day in court." Lindenmuth noted Castro's background in the military before he became a federal immigration officer, calling his career one of "public service to our country and to our nation, either through its military or protecting its borders and enforcing its laws." Castro has not yet entered a plea on the Minnesota state charges. If convicted on all six federal counts, he faces up to five years in prison on each.

The shooting was one of three by immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge, an operation that also included the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, according to PBS and CBS News. Sosa-Celis's FTCA lawsuit against the federal government and Minnesota's pending assault case against Castro remain unresolved. Whether the Justice Department ever revisits the civil rights charge that Evans said he fought to bring, and whether Minnesota succeeds in ultimately prosecuting Castro on state assault counts once the federal case concludes, are the open questions hanging over the case going forward.