Minnesota Sues Texas Governor Abbott to Force Extradition of ICE Agent Charged With Shooting Venezuelan Man

Since Hennepin County prosecutors charged ICE agent Christian Castro in May with four felony assault counts and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has refused to sign the paperwork sending him back to Minnesota. On Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Abbott in federal court to force the issue, according to the Texas Tribune, ABC News, PBS and Al Jazeera.

The case centers on a January 14 incident during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's immigration enforcement push in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say Castro fired a gun through the front door of an occupied home, striking Venezuelan migrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg. The bullet traveled through a closet and lodged in a child's bedroom wall, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

Castro allegedly told federal investigators that Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, attacked him with a broom handle and snow shovel before he opened fire in self-defense. The Department of Homeland Security initially backed that account, and then-Secretary Kristi Noem called it an "attempted murder" of an ICE agent, according to Al Jazeera. Surveillance footage told a different story. Federal prosecutors dropped charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna in February, and then-ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons acknowledged in a statement that Castro and a second officer "appear to have made untruthful statements" under a joint ICE-DOJ review of the video. Both officers were placed on administrative leave. Minnesota officials say Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the United States.

Texas Rangers arrested Castro in Cameron County in late May on Minnesota's nationwide warrant. Four days later, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sent Abbott a formal extradition request. Ellison's office says Abbott typically signs these rendition warrants within about 30 days. Nearly three months later, he still hasn't signed this one.

Ellison gave Abbott a Monday deadline last week to sign or face a lawsuit, according to the Texas Tribune. Abbott didn't sign. Ellison filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking a judge to order Abbott to sign the warrant and to block Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from releasing Castro. Under Texas law, a fugitive held on an extradition warrant can only be detained 90 days, a deadline Ellison says arrives next week. He also flagged, per PBS, that Castro has reportedly made jailhouse calls to a woman in Mexico discussing marriage and buying a house there once released, raising the prospect he could leave the country entirely if freed.

Ellison's lawsuit leans on a 1987 Supreme Court precedent establishing that a governor's duty to extradite is ministerial and non-discretionary. If Ellison's characterization of the law holds, Abbott doesn't have a policy call to make here. He has a paper to sign.

Abbott's office initially declined to comment, citing "pending extradition matters." But asked directly about the lawsuit at an unrelated press conference Tuesday, Abbott didn't dispute the legal obligation. Instead he pivoted to an entirely separate grievance: "It's time for Minnesota to step up and repay the United States of America and Americans for all the fraud that they have committed in their state under federal programs," Abbott said, according to the Texas Tribune. He said he won't respond until Minnesota "acknowledges their fault" and repays the federal government.

That's a real issue, tied to a welfare fraud scandal in the state's social programs, which the Trump administration has cited as partial justification for Operation Metro Surge. But it's a separate legal question from whether Abbott has to comply with a state's extradition request for a criminal defendant. Conditioning compliance with what Ellison calls a "ministerial" legal duty on an unrelated policy dispute sets a problematic precedent. The law doesn't appear to carve out an exception for governors who are mad about something else.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called the whole lawsuit unnecessary, saying Texas jail officials and local prosecutors "have been very cooperative" and that extradition "is not supposed to be controversial." Cameron County Sheriff Manny Trevino's office declined to comment Tuesday. It's not publicly known whether Castro has retained a lawyer; neither Minnesota court records nor Texas jail records list one as of Tuesday.

The clock is now the story. If Castro isn't extradited before Texas's 90-day detention limit runs out next week, Ellison warns he could walk free in a border county with an alleged plan to relocate to Mexico. A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas will have to decide, likely within days, whether to order Abbott's hand forced or grant Trevino more time while the underlying dispute plays out.