Minnesota county prosecutor files charges against ICE agent in shooting incident News
Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Minnesota county prosecutor files charges against ICE agent in shooting incident

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in Minnesota charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime on Monday. The charges are in response to an incident involving Castro and Minneapolis resident Julio Sosa-Celis on January 14.

In a news conference, Moriarty claimed that Castro pursued and shot Sosa-Celis in the leg, after Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna retreated to a house and closed the door. The bullet passed through a closet and lodged in the wall of a child’s bedroom. Moriarty said that Castro was “absolutely not under any physical threat” when he opened fire. She added that federal officers enjoy no immunity from state criminal charges in Minnesota.

In a January 15 press release, ICE accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel, triggering the incident. Moriarty maintained that these claims were false. A federal judge has dismissed the charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna, finding that there was new evidence “materially inconsistent” with the allegations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly investigating whether Castro and another ICE agent lied under oath about the incident.

The shooting incident happened during Operation Metro Surge, the large-scale deployment of ICE agents and related federal officers to Minnesota from December 2025 into February 2026. ICE agents also killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good during Metro Surge, in what the DHS called self-defense shootings.

In March, Minnesota sued DHS for refusing to provide evidence in all three shooting incidents. Moriarty updated reporters at Monday’s conference, saying that the federal government has yet to provide any evidence to state or local authorities.

Castro is the second ICE agent to be charged by Moriarty’s office in relation to Metro Surge. Hennepin County charged Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with assault last month. He allegedly pointed his gun at two motorists while driving on the shoulder of a highway.

Hennepin County prosecutors continue to investigate the killings of Good and Pretti. The office released a video on YouTube, explaining to citizens how the office can prosecute ICE agents on state charges.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UK parliament rejected J.S. Mill's proposal to give women the vote

On May 20, 1867, the British Parliament rejected by 196-73 an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act presented by John Stuart Mill that would have permitted women to vote. Review Mill's 1869 work The Subjection of Women.

Supreme Court applies Free Exercise Clause to state governments

On May 20, 1940, the United States Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment applied to state governments in Cantwell v. Connecticut under the incorporation doctrine, which applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learn more about the Incorporation Doctrine from the Cornell Law Schools' Legal Information Institute.