ICE officer faces federal charges for lying about shooting of Venezuelan immigrant

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro gets into a car surrounded by news reporters moments after being released from the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center in Brownsville, Texas on Aug. 27, 2026.

Michael Gonzalez/AP Photo

Michael Gonzalez/AP Photo

Federal prosecutors are charging an officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for lying to investigators about a shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota earlier this year.

The criminal case is not yet public but was confirmed by a person not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

The charges represent a rare moment of the Justice Department seeking to hold immigration officers accountable.

Christian Castro, the ICE officer, was in north Minneapolis in January as part of a broad immigration crackdown in the state known as Operation Metro Surge. Authorities say he fired his weapon through a closed door and shot Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, in the leg.

Immigration enforcement officers faced widespread bipartisan criticism for their behavior during that immigration surge, including the killings of two U.S. citizens.

Castro initially claimed under oath that Sosa-Celis attacked him, but surveillance footage contradicted his claim. Castro is separately facing state-level assault charges over the case in Minnesota.

The Hennepin County attorney had sought to extradite him from Texas to Minnesota to face the charges, but a federal judge in Texas last week ruled against Minnesota’s request to keep Castro in jail, pending his extradition.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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