ICE agent charged in shooting during Minneapolis immigration crackdown is arrested in Texas

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — An ICE agent facing several assault charges in connection with a shooting involving two Venezuelan people in Minnesota earlier this year has been arrested in Texas, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.

Christian Castro was charged earlier this month with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. He was arrested Friday morning in Harlingen, Texas, “without incident,” a spokesperson for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told CNN.

CNN is working to determine whether Castro has an attorney. In a statement to CNN, a DHS spokesperson called Castro’s arrest “unlawful” and a “political stunt,” saying the agent’s actions should be handled at the federal, not state level.

“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these statements. Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face disciplinary action, including termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” the DHS spokesperson said.

“The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct. Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated.”

Castro faces those charges in connection with the January 14 shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, who was shot in the leg through the front door of a Minneapolis home. The incident took place during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement blitz in the Twin Cities. It’s one of several cases in which the US government’s account of a shooting involving a federal immigration agent has fallen apart after later scrutiny.

Originally, Sosa-Celis and his cousin Alfredo A. Aljorna were facing federal charges after DHS said they had attacked an agent, prompting him to fire a defensive shot.

But the Justice Department dropped the charges in February, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said two of its agents, who made false statements about the incident under oath, were placed on administrative leave.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was “pleased” to hear Castro has been arrested.

“In Minnesota, we believe in equal justice under the law. That means nobody is above the law, including agents of the federal government,” Ellison said in a news release about the arrest.

“Christian Castro’s alleged shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis appears unwarranted, as evidenced by the lies Castro told his ICE supervisors to justify his unlawful actions,” Ellison added.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in response to inquiries about the arrest that, “Our city was invaded, and people were shot. Now it must be clear – nobody is above the law, including ICE.”

Castro has been booked into Texas’ Cameron County Jail on his Minnesota arrest warrant, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

His arrest “represents the next step in a long-established legal process, and we will now begin the work necessary to bring Mr. Castro back to Minnesota to face these charges,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement.

The shooting took place amid a flurry of use of force incidents during Operation Metro Surge, which saw thousands of federal agents dispatched to the Twin Cities. The operations sparked weeks of protests and prompted lawsuits from both the state and city governments.

Renée Good, a 33-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on January 7. And Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was fatally shot by two DHS officers on January 24. In both those cases, the government’s original accounts of the shootings faced scrutiny as videos and witness accounts emerged.

Video failed to support agent’s claims

When news first emerged that an agent had shot Sosa-Celis during an immigration enforcement operation, federal authorities accused the man of attacking an agent with a snow shovel or broom stick.

That account differed from what the men and their family members shared in interviews and videos livestreamed as they made 911 calls. And video captured by a city camera failed to support Castro’s account, prosecutors said.

The nine minute video shows Sosa-Celis outside the home with a snow shovel, which he drops when Aljorna arrives and runs towards the door. The ICE agent pursues Aljorna, who seemingly slips and falls before there’s a struggle on the ground between the three men.

The struggle between the federal agent and the two men lasted about 12 seconds, contradicting the agent’s account that he was engaged in a struggle for about three minutes before the shooting. No part of the video shows anyone attacking Castro with the shovel.

Sosa-Celis helped his cousin off the ground and into the home, according to a complaint filed by the state last week. A few seconds later, Castro got off the ground and fired one shot through the front door, which hit Sosa-Celis in the leg, the complaint says.

The state alleges there were four adults and two children inside the home at the time of the shooting. Prosecutors also said the bullet that struck Sosa-Celis made its final impact in the wall of a child’s room.

The day after the shooting, DHS claimed in a news release federal agents were targeting Sosa-Celis in a traffic stop when he attempted to evade arrest, crashed into a parked car and tried to flee on foot.

DHS claimed Sosa-Celis and one of the agents were in a “struggle on the ground” before Sosa-Celis “got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick,” at which point the officer fired a “defensive shot.”

Aljorna’s attorney has said his client, not Sosa-Celis, was driving when he realized he was being followed by ICE agents. Aljorna drove home, was tackled by an agent but broke free and ran into the house, where Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg as he was trying to lock the door, the attorney said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described the men’s actions as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.” The agency stood by its initial statement a few days after the shooting when contacted by CNN.

Sosa-Celis and his cousin Aljorna were charged with assaulting an ICE officer. However, in a stunning reversal, nearly a month after the shooting the Justice Department moved to drop the charges against both men.

The motion to dismiss criminal charges with prejudice, filed in the US District Court of Minnesota, cited “newly discovered evidence” described as “materially inconsistent with the allegations” in the affidavit. ICE also issued a statement admitting its federal agents made “false statements” under oath.

In a similar reversal, prosecutors also moved to drop charges last year against Marimar Martinez, an American woman shot by a federal agent in her vehicle in Chicago. The government claimed Martinez had rammed the agent’s car several times and DHS called the agent’s shots “defensive fire.”

But other evidence, including video and text messages of the officer bragging about the shooting, bolstered Martinez’s account and a judge dismissed the federal charges against her.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Bill Kirkos, Whitney Wild, and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.