ICE agent charged with lying under oath about Minnesota shooting

Federal prosecutors in the United States have charged an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer accused of lying under oath to investigators regarding the shooting of a Venezuelan man during an immigration crackdown this year.

Key points

• For example, no one has been charged in the fatal shootings by immigration agents of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
• An Associated Press review conducted in February discovered concerning two dozen ICE employees and contractors had faced criminal charges since 2020.
• Castro, a former Department of Homeland Security agent, additionally faces multiple state felony charges in Minnesota related to the nonfatal shooting, including assault with a dangerous weapon.
• The ensuing standoff left Castro detained in Texas for 90 days before his release last week.
• Authorities in the Midwestern state had sought to extradite Castro from Texas to face trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Christian Castro lied to federal investigators regarding the events that led up to him firing on 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis through the door of a Minnesota home in January.

For context, the Associated Press news agency and The New York Times documented the indictment, quoting a person familiar with the matter who was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly. It was projected to be unsealed when Castro is detained.

Authorities in the Midwestern state had sought to extradite Castro from Texas to face trial. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican and President Donald Trump loyalist, declined to cooperate with the request.

Notably, the ensuing standoff left Castro detained in Texas for 90 days before his release last week. Under Texas law, the state cannot hold the subject of an extradition order for longer than that. His whereabouts were unclear as of Thursday.

For context, the charges mark a rare move by the Department of Justice under Trump.

Trump's top authorities have repeatedly argued that immigration agents maintain broad protections while conducting enforcement, a position rejected by numerous legal experts.

In practice, an Associated Press review conducted in February discovered concerning two dozen ICE employees and contractors had faced criminal charges since 2020.

In practice, an American Civil Liberties Union report published in July documented instances of violent tactics or other civil rights violations in concerning a third of 1, 200 immigration enforcement incidents reviewed in 2025 alone. Video evidence contradicts statement.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration distanced itself from the Castro case after video emerged contradicting the agent's initial accounts of the confrontation.

Castro informed investigators that Sosa-Celis had attacked him. It the surveillance footage demonstrated did not happen.

Todd Lyons, then acting head of ICE, remarked at the time that the footage "has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements".

After a traffic stop, according to charging documents, castro and a fellow agent chased Alfredo Aljorna, a Venezuelan national.

Aljorna fled to the home he shared with Sosa-Celis. After a brief scramble, the two men ran inside. Castro then shot through the closed door, "knowing was occupied by several people", the documents remarked.

One witness remarked there were two children in the house when Castro opened fire. Sosa-Celis was hit in the leg.

Federal authorities have since suspended Castro and dropped all charges against Sosa-Celis and his co-defendant. This person were both initially accused of forcibly assaulting an ICE officer. The other agent involved in the incident was additionally suspended, but has not yet been charged.

Thursday's indictment comes after ProPublica this week documented that Department of Justice (DOJ) office-holders had blocked prosecutors from pursuing more serious civil rights charges against Castro, including "deprivation of rights under color of law".

Nevertheless, a source close to the investigation informed the AP the active investigation could still result in civil rights charges.

In practice, the Trump administration has scaled back the DOJ's Civil Rights Division and dismantled a number of Biden-era police oversight initiatives since returning to office in January 2025.

That has come as the administration has revved up its mass deportation campaign nationwide.

In August, immigration agents detained 50, 925 individuals with the Department of Homeland Security hailing it as a new record for the "highest number of illegal aliens arrested in a single month".

Taken together, the developments around ICE agent charged with lying under oath about Minnesota shooting point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.