A US Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement agent was arrested<\/a> in Texas<\/a> on Friday after he was charged by Minnesota officials for allegedly shooting a Venezuelan immigrant during an ICE operation in Minneapolis and lying about what happened.<\/p>\n Christian Castro, 52, was deployed as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation push in the Twin Cities, dubbed \u201cOperation Metro Surge,\u201d and was charged<\/a> by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty earlier this month with four counts of felony assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.<\/p>\n The charges stem from the shooting of Venezuelan national Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis at his home on January 14 as ICE agents pursued his roommate, another Venezuelan immigrant named Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna.<\/p>\n According to The New York Times<\/a>, Castro was arrested<\/a> Friday after being tracked down by investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Texas Rangers and agents with the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General carried<\/a> out the arrest, according to the Minnesota-based Sahan Journal.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,\u201d Moriarty said. \u201cThe BCA\u2019s investigative work was instrumental in this process, and we\u2019re grateful for their collaboration as we pursue accountability for this incident on behalf of Mr. Sosa-Celis, his family, and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n \n \u201cFamily separations cause lasting trauma that no child should ever have to endure,\u201d one lawmaker said.\n <\/p>\n Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were originally charged by the US Department of Justice<\/a> (DOJ), after Castro claimed that he had shot in self-defense when the men assaulted him with a broom and a shovel, claims that were parroted by then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.<\/p>\n But the charges were later dropped after video of the incident and an examination of X-ray evidence demonstrated that Castro\u2019s claims were false. Castro and another agent were subsequently placed on administrative leave by DHS while they were investigated internally for lying under oath.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Minnesota, we believe in equal justice under the law. That means nobody is above the law, including agents of the federal government,\u201d said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison<\/a> following news of Castro\u2019s arrest on Friday. \u201cI am pleased to hear Christian Castro has been taken into custody and will stand trial for the crimes he allegedly committed in Minnesota. Justice demands no less.\u201d<\/p>\n Castro is the second ICE agent to be charged by Moriarty\u2019s office for their role in Operation Metro Surge, which civil rights<\/a> groups and Minnesota officials have characterized as a lawless immigration crackdown<\/a> involving racial profiling, warrantless arrests, violent raids, and multiple shootings by federal agents.<\/p>\n Another agent, Gregory Morgan Jr., was charged last month with two counts of felony second-degree assault after he allegedly pulled a gun on two local residents during a traffic stop. Morgan turned himself in<\/a> to local authorities last week and was released on bond.<\/p>\n Ellison also sued the Trump administration<\/a> in March for refusing to cooperate with the state investigation into the shooting of Sosa-Celis, and other probes into the fatal shootings of two US citizens.<\/p>\n Moriarty\u2019s office has not yet brought charges against ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who fatally shot <\/a>Minneapolis mother Renee Good in January, or Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez in connection with the deadly shooting<\/a> of Department of Veterans<\/a> Affairs nurse Alex Pretti later that month.<\/p>\n An important fundraising appeal: We fell short of our goal<\/p>\n Thank you for reading Truthout today. We have a brief message before you go.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, donations are down for Truthout at a time when media faces immense pressure. Yet, grassroots media is vital in the fight against Trump\u2019s authoritarian reign. Our mandate to tell the truth, share strategies for resistance, and speak against fascism grows more urgent each day. We must appeal for your support.<\/p>\n If you can support Truthout with a one-time or monthly donation, you will make a significant impact on our work. Please give today.<\/p>\n This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNobody is above the law,\u201d said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, \u201cincluding agents of the federal government.\u201d Honest,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-315801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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