A lawyer for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agentcomplained this week when his client was subjected to an unannounced arrest in Minnesota after refusing for months to agree to extradition from Texas, where he was protected by Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
Defense attorney Daniel Gerdts lashed out at Minnesota officials on Thursday, after Christian Castro appeared in Hennepin County District Court on state charges that he shot a Venezuelan immigrant and then lied about it while working as an ICE agent in Minneapolis during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The arrest ended a standoff that had kept Castro in Texas for three and a half months.
Castro’s lawyers in Texas had spent days arranging a voluntary surrender, Gerdts told MPR News, and state authorities planned to take him into custody at the attorney’s downtown Minneapolis office.
Castro had driven up from Texas with his wife to turn himself in, Gerdts said. Instead, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents arrested him on a street nearby.
Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office knew the plan, Gerdts said.
“Everybody knew this well in advance,” Gerdts said. “I don’t understand why the deception — what that’s about, it’s just theater as far as I’m concerned.”
A bureau spokesperson confirmed to MPR News that its agents had been negotiating a surrender with Castro.
“When they witnessed him in downtown Minneapolis, they saw an opportunity to arrest him for his warrant,” the spokesperson said.
“You do not get to dictate how you are taken into custody,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference after the hearing, National Public Radio reported.
Castro was arrested in Cameron County, Texas, on May 29, days after Hennepin County charged him over the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Minnesota later sued Abbott to force the handover, alleging in a federal lawsuit that he withheld the extradition paperwork for nearly three months while approving three unrelated Minnesota requests.
A judge in Cameron County told Castro on June 4 that he could waive extradition and return to Minnesota voluntarily, the lawsuit said. Castro declined, and the judge ordered him jailed.
Under the Texas code, a person arrested on another state’s warrant may waive extradition by signing a consent form in front of a judge. The governor’s signature is not required.
Castro walked out of the Texas jail on Aug. 27, when the state’s 90-day limit on holding people awaiting extradition expired, the Texas Tribune reported.
Hennepin County Judge Paul Scoggin set bail Thursday at $200,000 with conditions, below the $350,000 prosecutors sought, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. He said his main concern was that Castro would flee.
“Defendant does not have substantial ties to the state of Minnesota,” Scoggin said. “And the defendant has apparently voiced some interest in fleeing the national jurisdiction.”
Prosecutor Joshua Larson told the court that Castro made 394 phone calls to a person in Mexico from the Texas jail and discussed moving there, the Star Tribune reported.
Gerdts countered that Castro lives on the border and has family in Mexico, according to the Star Tribune. He said Castro “could have fled” but surrendered to federal authorities in Texas instead.
Castro did not oppose extradition, Gerdts told the court, but no one offered him a waiver to sign while he sat in the Texas jail.
Castro signed a waiver Thursday agreeing to return automatically if he is released and arrested again, the Star Tribune reported. Minnesota then dropped its lawsuit against Abbott.
Castro remains suspended without pay from ICE, CBS News reported. He is due in federal court in St. Paul on Friday and back in state court Nov. 3.
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