A federal immigration officer is now facing criminal charges in Minnesota after prosecutors accused him of shooting a Venezuelan man during a botched ICE operation and then lying about what actually happened.
Hennepin County prosecutors announced Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro has been charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime stemming from a January shooting during an attempted immigration arrest.
And according to prosecutors, the facts of the case look dramatically different from the original version presented by federal authorities.
At a press conference Monday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty accused Castro of firing his weapon through the front door of a home even though the people inside posed “absolutely no threat.”
“Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home, knowing there were people who had just run inside,” Moriarty said. “The bullet punched through the front door and struck Mr. Sosa-Celis’ leg before traveling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child’s bedroom.”
Authorities have now issued a nationwide warrant for Castro’s arrest.
The shooting occurred during a January 14 immigration enforcement operation involving Venezuelan nationals Julio Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna near their Minnesota residence.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Security claimed the men attacked officers using a shovel and a broom, leading to the shooting. Both men were initially charged with assaulting an officer.
But those charges later completely collapsed.
Minnesota prosecutors ultimately dismissed the case with prejudice after reviewing video evidence they said directly contradicted the federal government’s account.
The released footage reportedly showed one man briefly holding a shovel before dropping it while another ran toward the house empty-handed. An officer then tackled one of the men moments before the shooting.
Moriarty stated Monday that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were both in the United States legally and described the entire incident as “a case of mistaken identity.”
She also flatly rejected the original federal narrative.
“He was not hit by a shovel or a broom,” Moriarty said of Castro. “In fact, he was not hit at all.”
The scandal has already triggered fallout inside ICE itself.
Back in February, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons publicly acknowledged that internal reviews concluded two officers appeared to have made “untruthful statements” under oath regarding the incident.
“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Lyons warned at the time, adding the officers could face termination and criminal prosecution following the investigation.
Castro’s case is now becoming part of a larger controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
Another ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was separately charged last month with felony second-degree assault after allegedly pointing a firearm at two civilians while driving an unmarked SUV during another enforcement operation.
According to prosecutors, Morgan illegally drove along the shoulder of a highway before aiming his weapon directly at the heads of two people inside another vehicle.
Moriarty argued the conduct was “well beyond the scope” of lawful federal authority.
The incidents occurred after the Trump administration deployed approximately 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota as part of a major immigration enforcement effort known as “Metro Surge.”
That operation has already become highly controversial following multiple deadly confrontations.
Two U.S. citizens — Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse employed by the Veterans Affairs system — were killed during separate encounters tied to immigration operations earlier this year.
Videos of those incidents circulated widely online, sparking protests across the country and drawing criticism not only from Democrats but also from some Republicans concerned about escalating tactics used during immigration raids.
Now the criminal charges against Castro are likely to intensify scrutiny over the administration’s enforcement methods, the conduct of federal agents during operations, and whether false official statements were used to justify the use of deadly force.
