ICE agent facing assault charges during Minneapolis immigration crackdown arrested in Texas

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of multiple assault-related offenses connected to a January shooting involving two Venezuelan men in Minnesota has been arrested in Texas, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Christian Castro was charged earlier this month with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. The charges stem from a January 14 incident in Minneapolis in which Julio Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg through the front door of a residence. The shooting occurred during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation carried out by federal authorities in the Twin Cities under the Trump administration.

Initially, Sosa-Celis and his cousin, Alfredo A. Aljorna, faced federal charges after the Department of Homeland Security alleged they had assaulted an agent, prompting him to fire a defensive shot. However, the Justice Department dismissed those charges in February. ICE later revealed that two of its agents had provided false statements under oath regarding the incident and were subsequently placed on administrative leave. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison welcomed news of Castro’s arrest.

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“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. According to prosecutors, a bullet fired during the incident traveled through the home’s front door, struck Sosa-Celis in the leg, and ultimately lodged in the wall of a child’s bedroom.

The shooting occurred amid a series of controversial law enforcement incidents linked to Operation Metro Surge, a federal initiative that deployed thousands of agents to the Twin Cities region. The operation triggered widespread protests and led to legal challenges from both state and local governments. Among the incidents was the fatal shooting of 33-year-old mother of three Renee Good on January 7 by an ICE agent. Later that month, on January 24, 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by two DHS officers.

In both fatal shootings, official government accounts were later questioned as video footage and eyewitness testimony emerged, raising concerns about the circumstances surrounding the incidents. The arrest of Castro marks the latest development in a case that has drawn significant public attention and renewed scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement operations and use-of-force practices.