ICE agent arrested in Texas for Minnesota shooting

Christian Castro, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer accused of shooting at a Venezuelan man in Minnesota, was arrested Friday in Texas. Castro was taken into custody by Texas Rangers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General, working alongside investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who tracked him down, CNN reported.

Earlier this month, criminal charges were filed against Castro, including four felony counts of second-degree assault and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. According to prosecutors, the charges stem from a January 14, 2026, incident in north Minneapolis, where Castro discharged his service weapon directly through the front door of a duplex after chasing a resident inside. The bullet pierced the door and struck Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the thigh before continuing its trajectory and embedding itself in the wall of a child's bedroom.

The shooting occurred during 'Operation Metro Surge', ICE's campaign against immigration in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. Following the incident, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement claiming that Sosa-Celis and his cousin, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, had viciously attacked the agent with a broom handle and a snow shovel, forcing him to fire a defensive shot. However, after footage from city-owned security cameras directly contradicted the DHS's statement, all charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were dropped. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons later acknowledged that two agents had fabricated their statements under oath.

Castro is the second federal agent to face criminal charges in connection with Operation Metro Surge, following the recent assault charges filed against another ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., for an unrelated incident. The development comes at a time ICE continues to face increased scrutiny over its detention policies, with several Democratic lawmakers calling for stringent reforms on the federal agency. Earlier this year, a funding dispute for ICE had led to a partial government shutdown, the longest in American history.

The fatal shootings of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, both of whom were killed by federal agents in January during large-scale protests against the agency. The shutdown finally ended after the House of Representatives approved a long-delayed funding package for DHS, while keeping ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) out of its purview. Republicans later pushed for a reconciliation bill to find the two agencies.