Federal prosecutors have charged an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with making false statements to investigators about a shooting in Minnesota earlier this year.
The criminal case involves ICE officer Christian Castro, who allegedly lied about the circumstances surrounding his shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, in north Minneapolis.
The charges have not yet been made public but were confirmed by a person not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
The case marks a rare instance of the Justice Department moving to hold an immigration enforcement officer legally accountable for conduct in the field.
Castro was deployed to Minneapolis in January as part of Operation Metro Surge, a broad immigration enforcement crackdown launched across the state of Minnesota.
Authorities say Castro fired his weapon through a closed door, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg during the operation.
Castro initially claimed under oath that Sosa-Celis had attacked him, but surveillance footage directly contradicted his account of the incident.
Immigration enforcement officers faced widespread bipartisan criticism for their conduct during Operation Metro Surge, which also involved the killings of two U.S. citizens.
Castro is separately facing state-level assault charges in Minnesota related to the same shooting incident involving Sosa-Celis.
The Hennepin County attorney sought to extradite Castro from Texas to Minnesota to face those charges, but a federal judge in Texas ruled against Minnesota’s request to keep Castro jailed pending extradition.
The federal lying charges add a significant new layer of legal jeopardy for Castro, who now faces scrutiny from both state and federal authorities over the January shooting.
The case continues to draw attention to the conduct of immigration enforcement operations and the accountability mechanisms available when officers are accused of misconduct during high-profile crackdowns.
