Minnesota sues Abbott over ICE agent extradition

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Texas Governor Greg Abbott seeking to force the extradition of a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Christian Castro, to Minnesota.

The case was brought in a U.S. district court in southern Texas. Ellison’s filing aims to prevent Castro’s potential release while Minnesota pursues state-level charges tied to a shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

How the extradition dispute reached federal court

According to Ellison’s office, Abbott has not carried out what Ellison describes as a mandatory duty to transfer Castro to Minnesota authorities. Castro has been held in a Texas jail since May 29, the lawsuit says.

Ellison argues that delays in the extradition process could trigger an outcome Minnesota wants to avoid: Castro being released before he is transferred. The filing says Texas law could allow Castro to leave custody as early as next week if the extradition process remains stalled.

Custody timeline and the risk of release

The lawsuit frames time as a central issue, pointing to the May 29 detention date and warning about the possibility of release next week. Ellison also raised the issue of flight risk, saying Castro has alleged connections to Mexico.

The office of the Texas governor declined to comment because the matter is pending, according to the source material.

The Minnesota charges tied to the January 14 shooting Castro faces state charges in Minnesota stemming from a January 14 incident in Minneapolis in which Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was wounded during an immigration enforcement operation. Minnesota charged Castro in May with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

The source material says early federal accounts described the agents’ actions as self-defense. It also says later video evidence changed the direction of the case: federal prosecutors dropped charges against the residents involved.

Video evidence and findings on testimony

After the video emerged, an internal investigation found that officers gave untruthful testimony, the source material states. Those developments are cited as part of the broader context for why Minnesota is seeking to bring Castro back to face the state-level case.

The lawsuit centers on custody and transfer, rather than revisiting the underlying incident in court filings described in the source. The immediate question now is whether a federal judge in southern Texas will order steps that keep Castro in custody and move him to Minnesota before any possible release date.