Minnesota’s progressive Attorney General Keith Ellison accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of turning the Lone Star State into a “sanctuary state for violent criminals” after an ICE agent charged in the shooting of a man in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail, escalating a politically charged extradition fight between the two states.
Christian Castro, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent charged in connection with a non-fatal January shooting in Minneapolis, was released Thursday from a south Texas jail after a federal judge denied Minnesota’s emergency request to keep him in custody and compel Abbott to sign the extradition warrant. Texas law generally limits pre-extradition detention to 90 days, and Abbott has not yet decided whether to approve Minnesota’s request.
“This is not politics — this is not a game,” Ellison said in a statement after Castro’s release. “If a governor can delay extraditions and cherry-pick cases according to their political tastes, then no state will be able to hold fugitive criminals accountable.”
Meanwhile, Ellison wrote on X that by “refusing to extradite Castro, Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals.”
“You guys are such bad lawyers. You showed up unprepared, uninformed & unpersuasive. You don’t know the law & it showed,” Abbott wrote on X in response to Ellison’s post calling Texas a “sanctuary state for violent criminals.”
“Minn. is the literal definition of a sanctuary state because you refuse to assist in enforcing immigration laws,” Abbott shot back. “I’ll put Minneapolis at the top of the list for future bus drop offs if we ever have a President like Joe Biden again.”
Castro faces four felony counts of second-degree assault and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime – charges filed by a Minnesota state court. He is accused of firing through the front door of an occupied north Minneapolis home during an ICE operation in January, striking Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg. Castro has maintained that he acted in self-defense.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office filed the underlying state charges against Castro following an investigation by Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The Trump administration initially cast the episode as an attack on an ICE officer, but ICE later placed Castro and another agent on administrative leave after its acting director said they appeared to have made “untruthful statements” about what happened.
Minnesota prosecutors say surveillance video and other evidence contradict Castro’s account that he fired after being attacked with a broom and snow shovel. Federal assault charges initially filed against Sosa-Celis and another man were later dismissed after prosecutors said new evidence was “materially inconsistent” with the original allegations.
WATCH: HOUSTON FACES $110M HIT AS TEXAS GOV LAYS DOWN LAW ON ‘SANCTUARY’ POLICIES
Abbott has said Texas is investigating whether Castro qualifies as a fugitive subject to extradition, noting that the agent returned to Texas on federal orders rather than voluntarily fleeing Minnesota. The governor’s office praised the judge’s ruling, accusing Minnesota of trying to force a deadline on Abbott’s review.
Fox News Digital asked Abbott’s office about how the governor was planning to act on Minnesota’s extradition request and for clarification on Texas’ review of Castro’s fugitive status, but did not receive a response before publication.
