Federal prosecutors in Minnesota were preparing to file civil rights charges this week against an ICE agent accused of shooting and wounding an immigrant from Venezuela in January, according to three people with knowledge of the case.
But those plans unraveled, and the agent, Christian Castro, walked out of a Texas jail where he had been held for three months.
Such charges would be rare, and a sign that the Trump administration was willing to hold federal agents accountable as officials face criticism over a number of shootings during a nationwide immigration crackdown, including two in Minnesota that killed U.S. citizens.
In Mr. Castro’s case, time was of the essence. He was set to be released on Thursday from a South Texas jail where he was being held on separate state charges filed by Minnesota prosecutors in the shooting of the Venezuelan man, Julio C. Sosa-Celis. Officials worried that Mr. Castro, a deportation officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, might flee to Mexico if freed.
But the plans to file federal civil rights charges before Mr. Castro left jail, which would have required sign-off from Washington, fell apart in the final hours for reasons that remain unclear. A Justice Department official said in a statement that the agency had “not yet reached a conclusion on this matter and will never rush an investigative process and the thorough review of all evidence.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota declined to comment.
Although federal charges could still be filed, Mr. Castro left jail early Thursday without restrictions. With no federal charges and no agreement from Texas to extradite Mr. Castro on the state counts, it remains unclear whether he will ever appear in court as a criminal defendant.
“Mr. Sosa-Celis put his trust in federal prosecutors in Minnesota who promised him, as a victim and a witness, that they would finally pursue justice by indicting Christian Castro,” said Robin Wolpert, a lawyer for Mr. Sosa-Celis, who said she was told by prosecutors early this week that charges were imminent.
Federal prosecutors’ preparations to charge Mr. Castro were described by Ms. Wolpert; Frederick J. Goetz, a lawyer for a roommate of Mr. Sosa-Celis who has been classified as a victim in the case; and a third person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
Ms. Wolpert added that “it is devastating to Mr. Sosa-Celis to learn that his trust in our justice system appears to have been broken once again.”
The Shooting
Minneapolis was in chaos when Mr. Castro and another ICE agent began chasing a car through the city’s snowy streets in mid-January. Mr. Castro was around 1,400 miles from his home station near the Texas-Mexico border.
He was one of thousands of agents dispatched to Minnesota last winter after the Trump administration accused Democrats there of stymying immigration enforcement. Officers arrested thousands of immigrants, clashed repeatedly with residents and engaged in conduct that alarmed federal judges.
Three people were shot by agents during the campaign, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti, U.S. citizens who were killed in separate January incidents. The other shooting, which received far less attention and resulted in relatively minor injuries, took place on a dimly lit residential street on Jan. 14 after the car that Mr. Castro and his partner were pursuing steered into a snowbank.
The driver of that car, Alfredo A. Aljorna, ran toward the nearby duplex where he lived. His roommate, Mr. Sosa-Celis, was standing outside. After a scuffle with an agent on the front lawn, the men fled inside. State prosecutors have said that Mr. Castro fired a single shot through the front door and struck Mr. Sosa-Celis on the leg.
At first, the Trump administration rallied behind Mr. Castro.
Mr. Sosa-Celis and his roommate, neither of whom had legal status in the United States, were described in a federal news release as “violent criminal illegal aliens” who engaged in a sustained assault with a broom and shovel. The men were charged with assaulting or impeding an officer, a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison.
But weeks later, the Trump administration made a stunning reversal. After reviewing surveillance video of the incident, prosecutors concluded that Mr. Castro had likely lied about the events leading up to the shooting. The charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis and Mr. Aljorna were dropped. And the two officers at the scene were suspended and placed under investigation.
“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Todd Lyons, who at the time led ICE, said in February. The agents, he added, could face federal criminal charges. No charges have been filed against Mr. Castro’s partner, who did not fire his weapon and who has not been publicly identified.
The State Charges
Months passed with no word about the status of that federal investigation.
Then in mid-May, the top county prosecutor in Minneapolis, Mary Moriarty, announced that she was forging ahead on her own. She charged Mr. Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
It is rare for federal agents to face state criminal charges for on-duty conduct, and the Trump administration has argued that any prosecution of agents should take place in federal courts. If Ms. Moriarty succeeded in trying Mr. Castro, it had the potential to become a template for local officials elsewhere to seek criminal accountability for federal officials.
There was one major problem: Mr. Castro was in Texas.
At first, the case proceeded as most do. An arrest warrant was issued, and Mr. Castro was arrested by Texas Rangers. When Mr. Castro did not agree to return to Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, submitted an extradition request. But the usually routine process stalled when Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, did not act on the request.
By this week, the clock was ticking in Texas. State law limits detentions on extradition warrants to 90 days, meaning Mr. Castro would be freed on Thursday if nothing changed.
In Minneapolis, federal prosecutors were preparing to charge Mr. Castro with multiple counts of violating civil rights and making false statements. Doing so could have rendered the extradition battle moot.
But as the days went by, no charges emerged.
The impasse led to a federal courtroom on Tuesday in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, where Minnesota officials asked a judge to force Mr. Abbott to act on extradition before Mr. Castro was released.
The lawyers for Minnesota noted that Mr. Castro had made hundreds of phone calls in jail to a woman in Mexico with whom they said he had a romantic relationship. Minnesota officials told the judge that they feared Mr. Castro could flee there.
Texas officials argued that the governor needed more time to determine whether Mr. Castro qualified as a fugitive under the law since he had returned to Texas at the direction of his employer and before charges were filed.
The judge, Fernando Rodriguez Jr., a Trump appointee, sided with the Texans, clearing the way for Mr. Castro’s release.
Outside court, the bitter partisan politics shaping the case spilled onto social media.
Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general, posted that “Abbott is playing with constitutional fire” and “turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals.”
Mr. Abbott fired right back.
“You guys are such bad lawyers,” the governor responded. “You showed up unprepared, uninformed & unpersuasive. You don’t know the law & it showed.”
The Federal Uncertainty
As Mr. Castro walked free, his next steps seemed far from clear.
He could travel to Minnesota and turn himself in. He could hunker down in Texas. He could run for the border. And, at any point, federal prosecutors could decide whether to move forward with charges.
The civil rights charge that prosecutors had been weighing, deprivation of rights under color of law, can carry a lengthy prison term upon conviction. A Justice Department official said that when civil rights charges are weighed, federal prosecutors must consult and work cooperatively with the agency’s civil rights experts in Washington.
The statute, which can be used when government officials abuse their authority to deprive someone of their rights, has been filed against police officers in high-profile cases, including the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles.
Mr. Aljorna’s lawyer, Mr. Goetz, said in a statement that “it appears that political considerations have derailed the federal prosecution.” Under federal law, crime victims are generally required to be informed of the status of the investigation and about the filing of any charges.
“Earlier this week I believed the federal prosecution of Christian Castro would proceed without fear or favor,” Mr. Goetz said. “I have serious concerns that this is no longer the case.”
Attempts to reach Mr. Castro for comment while he was in jail and after his release were not successful. It was not clear if any lawyer was representing him in the Minnesota case.
It is difficult in any era to convict a law enforcement officer in an on-duty shooting, and President Trump’s Justice Department has been especially deferential to officers in the field.
But the Trump administration has been distancing itself from Mr. Castro for months.
Asked about Mr. Castro after his release from jail, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed one new detail this week: His suspension was without pay.
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