Minnesota sues Texas governor over ICE agent extradition in Minneapolis shooting case

Minnesota's attorney general has filed a lawsuit seeking to force Texas Governor Greg Abbott to transfer Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro so he can stand trial in connection with a January shooting in Minneapolis. The case centres on the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during an immigration enforcement operation on 14 January. Minnesota says Abbott has withheld the warrant needed for Castro's extradition for nearly three months.

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Attorney General Keith Ellison said in the lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, that Abbott has a mandatory duty to release Castro for transfer. Ellison also asked a US district court in southern Texas to prevent Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from allowing Castro to be released from jail. The dispute places a state extradition fight at the centre of a federal immigration case and has drawn attention because it involves a federal agent accused of criminal conduct during an enforcement operation.

According to the allegations described in the case, Castro fired a gun into Sosa-Celis's front door and struck him in the leg. Officials initially said the agents had acted in self-defence and accused Sosa-Celis and two other people of attacking officers with a broom and a snow shovel. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later described the incident as the attempted murder of an ICE agent.

Video evidence later contradicted the agents' account, and federal prosecutors dropped charges against Sosa-Celis and his housemate, Alfredo Aljorna, in February. The case has become part of a wider debate over transparency and the use of force during President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. In a statement in February, ICE's then-acting director Todd Lyons said a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice had found that sworn testimony from two officers appeared to contain untruthful statements.

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The two officers were then placed on administrative leave. That sequence of events has made the case significant beyond Minnesota, because it raises questions about accountability when federal immigration enforcement leads to disputed use-of-force claims. Minnesota prosecutors later brought charges against Castro in May, including four counts of second-degree assault, according to the court filings described in the report.

The lawsuit now seeks to move the case forward by compelling Texas to honour the extradition request. It also underscores the tension between state legal processes and federal immigration enforcement, especially when the accused is a federal officer and the underlying incident has already prompted conflicting official accounts. What remains unclear is how quickly the Texas governor's office or the court will act on the extradition dispute.

The immediate next step is whether the southern Texas court will grant the request to block Castro's release and whether the warrant will be transferred. The broader case will likely continue to be watched for its implications for federal accountability, immigration enforcement practices and interstate cooperation in criminal proceedings.

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