A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has been arrested in Texas for assault and falsely reporting a crime after a shooting in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown. Christian Castro was taken into custody on Friday, 11 days after prosecutors charged him over the non-fatal shooting of Venezuelan man Julio Cesar Sosa Celis.
Video evidence released last month contradicted accounts given by agents, showing the altercation lasted about 12 seconds, not three minutes, and that no broom handles or shovels were used against the officers. Sosa Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, were legally residing in the US, prosecutors said.
Castro is the second federal agent charged in connection with 'Operation Metro Surge', a large-scale deportation campaign in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the arrest was 'a critical step forward' in the prosecution.
The case has sparked tensions between local officials and the Trump administration over who has authority to investigate federal officers. ICE called the charges 'unlawful' and 'a political stunt'. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general assisted in the arrest, but ICE itself criticized the prosecution.
