US federal prosecutors have charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro with making false statements about the shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis.
Castro was taken into federal custody in Texas on Thursday, 3 September, after a grand jury returned a six-count indictment. The charges remain sealed and are expected to be made public once he is formally brought before a court.
The indictment follows a separate case brought by Minnesota prosecutors, who accuse Castro of four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime over the same incident. He was arrested in Texas on 29 May but was released last week after a dispute over his extradition.
ICE officer Christian Castro faces federal charges
The shooting took place on 14 January during Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-St Paul area. Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg after Castro and another ICE officer pursued Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna to an apartment where the two men lived.
Federal authorities initially claimed that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna had attacked an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. Prosecutors charged both men with assaulting or resisting federal officers.
But accounts of the confrontation later came under scrutiny. An FBI affidavit supporting the charges said Aljorna, rather than Sosa-Celis, had fled from a traffic stop, while Sosa-Celis had struck Castro with a broomstick as the officer tried to arrest Aljorna.
Cellphone and surveillance footage subsequently raised questions about the officers’ accounts. Federal prosecutors abandoned the case against both men in February, citing newly discovered evidence that was materially inconsistent with the allegations.
Todd Lyons, who was then acting director of ICE, said video evidence appeared to show that sworn statements made by Castro and another officer were untruthful. Both officers were placed on leave, and Castro was later suspended without pay.
“Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Mr Lyons said at the time. “Lying under oath is a serious federal offence.”
Castro, 52, is the first federal immigration officer known to have been prosecuted by the Trump administration over conduct linked to Operation Metro Surge, according to the Associated Press.
Federal prosecutors are charging him with false statements rather than the more serious civil rights offence that investigators had reportedly considered in connection with the shooting itself. The investigation into whether further charges should be brought is continuing.
His release from custody in Texas followed the expiry of a 90-day holding period. Cameron County sheriff Manny Treviño said Castro was released without restrictions in accordance with state law.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott had declined to sign Minnesota’s extradition warrant, prompting Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to seek court intervention. A federal judge refused to order the extradition before Castro was released.
Robin Wolpert, a lawyer for Sosa-Celis, said her client had been treated as though he had committed an offence before the evidence emerged.
“Everyone thought that my client had done something wrong, had broken the law, when in fact he was the victim and a witness to a very serious crime by a federal official,” she said.
