A federal grand jury has indicted an ICE officer on charges of making false statements about the nonfatal shooting of a man during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota last winter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The charges against the officer, Christian Castro of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, marked a rare instance of President Trump’s Justice Department accusing a federal agent of criminal wrongdoing at work.
Mr. Castro, who had been previously charged in state court, was among the thousands of federal agents who flooded Minnesota over the objections of local officials. Those agents made thousands of arrests, clashed regularly with residents and shot three people during the campaign, leaving two U.S. citizens dead.
The indictment against Mr. Castro was filed under seal and officials expect to make it public once he is in custody.
Prosecutors said Mr. Castro shot and wounded Julio C. Sosa-Celis, who is from Venezuela and who lacked legal status in the United States. The Jan. 14 shooting was followed by hours of protests and vandalism.
Top Trump administration officials initially came to Mr. Castro’s defense. But in contrast to the administration’s position in other shootings, federal officials publicly distanced themselves from Mr. Castro in the weeks that followed. Criminal charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis and another man were dropped, Mr. Castro was suspended and video footage emerged that contradicted key aspects of the initial federal account.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Castro had hired a lawyer for the federal case.
State prosecutors in Minnesota charged Mr. Castro with assault in May in connection with the shooting in May. He was arrested in Texas and held in a county jail for three months after declining to agree to extradition. When contacted by reporters through a jail messaging system, Mr. Castro did not respond.
He still has not answered to the state charges in court. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, did not sign off on Mr. Castro’s extradition, usually a routine step when one state is seeking a transfer of an inmate from another, prompting Minnesota officials to sue Mr. Abbott in federal court in Texas.
A judge sided with Mr. Abbott, who said he needed more time to consider the request, and Mr. Castro was released from jail last week under a Texas law limiting extradition detentions to 90 days.
Federal prosecutors do not face the same barriers in moving a defendant from one state to another, and Mr. Abbott would not have to sign off for Mr. Castro to be transferred to Minnesota on the federal charges.
The shooting of Mr. Sosa-Celis received less attention than the other two shootings involving federal agents in Minnesota last winter. It remains unclear whether immigration agents will face charges in those other shootings, which resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both American citizens.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
