By Jonathan Allen
May 29 (Reuters) – A U.S. immigration agent was arrested in Texas on Friday, nearly two weeks after a Minnesota prosecutor charged him with assaulting a Venezuelan man in a non-fatal shooting in Minneapolis this year.
Christian Castro, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime for shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg on January 14, at the height of President Donald Trump’s aggressive and hotly protested deportation surge in Minnesota.
Investigators from Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found Castro in Texas and traveled there, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the chief state prosecutor in Minneapolis, said in a statement. He was arrested by Texas Rangers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, which oversees ICE.
TWO FEDERAL OFFICIALS CHARGED THIS YEAR
Sosa-Celis was shot during the chaotic weeks of Operation Metro Surge, which saw hundreds of masked, armed agents roaming the streets of Minnesota’s biggest cities looking for immigrants. Also in January, immigration agents shot dead two U.S. citizens on Minneapolis streets on different days: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
In each instance, Trump and other administration officials defended the federal agents and blamed the victims for the violence, outraging many Minnesotans. It is unusual for state prosecutors to charge federal law enforcement officials, but Castro is the second federal official to be charged by Moriarty’s office this year.
She is also suing the Trump administration for access to evidence in the killings of Good and Pretti, and said she is weighing whether to prosecute the agents who killed them.
In the case of Sosa-Celis, DHS retracted its account of his shooting after saying the ICE agents involved had lied, and the Justice Department dropped its prosecution of Sosa-Celis. Two ICE officers, who were not named at the time, were put on administrative leave and may face federal prosecution for false statements, according to DHS.
A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to a request for comment about Castro’s arrest, and it was not immediately clear whether Castro had an attorney. A DHS spokesperson had previously called the state charges against Castro “a political stunt.” A spokesperson for the department’s inspector general did not respond to queries.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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