Texas Rangers and federal agents in South Texas arrested a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Friday who is accused of lying about what led up to him shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Minnesota prosecutors last week charged Christian Castro, 52, with five counts, including second-degree assault and filing a false police report in connection with the wounding of a man during an immigration operation in that state.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement that Rangers assisted in the arrest of Castro in Cameron County on the Texas-Mexico border. According to public records, Castro lives in McAllen, in neighboring Hidalgo County.
“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney, said in a statement.
The felony charges against Castro stem from a Jan. 14 incident in which ICE and Border Patrol agents pursued undocumented immigrants as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Castro is facing three to seven years in prison and fines of $4,200 to $14,000 if convicted of the charges, the charging document shows.
On that night, a Venezuelan man named Alfredo Aljorna led Castro and three other ICE agents on a vehicle chase that ended at his home, according to the charging document filed in a Minnesota court. Aljorna later told state investigators that the reason he fled was because the agents were in an unmarked vehicle and he didn’t know who was chasing him.
Still, he managed to enter his house where he and three other adults and three children lived. Castro then fired at the front door, striking Aljorna’s roommate, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, in the leg, according to court documents. After the shooting, Castro told federal investigators that Aljorna and Sosa-Celis attacked him with a shovel and broom to avoid being arrested, according to the court document.
Based on Castro’s statements, federal prosecutors charged Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, both of whom are in the country legally, with assaulting a law enforcement officer. But prosecutors dropped those charges after they reviewed footage of the incident that contradicted Castro’s testimony, according to court documents.
A surveillance camera operated by local police captured the incident, showing that Aljorna and Sosa-Celis didn’t attack Castro or any other agents, court documents say.
In February, ICE placed Castro on leave. And ICE’s interim director, Todd Lyons, said at the time that Castro was under investigation for appearing to have lied under oath, which is also a federal crime.
But after state prosecutors charged Castro, ICE said in a statement that Minnesota’s prosecution is “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.”
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