ICE agent federally charged with lying over shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant

Federal False-Statement Indictment Lands on ICE Agent Who Shot Venezuelan Immigrant Through Apartment Door

Healfromzero.com – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro surrendered to federal authorities on Thursday and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Friday, facing multiple counts of making false statements under oath. The indictment marks a first: the Department of Justice has never before charged a federal agent for conduct carried out on duty during the wave of high-profile immigration enforcement sweeps that swept across the country earlier this year. Multiple people familiar with the matter confirmed the charges, though the full charging document had not yet been made public at the time of reporting.

The Shooting and What Came After

The incident at the center of the case unfolded in Minnesota. ICE officers attempted to pull over a truck registered to an undocumented immigrant named Joffre Barrera. Behind the wheel was Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, a DoorDash delivery driver and cousin of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan immigrant. Aljorna drove off from the officers rather than stop. He then ran from the vehicle and was tackled by an ICE agent several steps from Sosa-Celis’ apartment building, according to the state’s account of events.

Sosa-Celis called out to his cousin, urging him to come inside. Once both men were behind the apartment door, a single shot rang out. Minnesota prosecutors allege that Castro fired through the door, striking Sosa-Celis in the back of the leg. Sosa-Celis described the moment in a Facebook livestream recorded from a hospital bed:

“I closed the door and as I was locking it, I heard the shot, and that’s when I realized I had been shot in the leg.”

Castro and a second agent were placed on administrative leave shortly after the shooting. Federal prosecutors later informed the judge overseeing a separate case against Sosa-Celis that the agents had made “false statements” under oath. Former ICE Director Todd Lyons subsequently confirmed that the Justice Department was investigating what he described as “untruthful statements” by the officers involved.

State Charges and the Extradition Tangle

Minnesota prosecutors had already moved against Castro in May, filing charges of second-degree assault and making a false report. Those state charges remain pending alongside the new federal counts. Castro’s path to Minnesota court, however, became entangled in a jurisdictional dispute. He was held in a Texas jail until last week, when the Texas governor declined to immediately approve his extradition to Minnesota. A federal judge overseeing the matter declined to intervene in the state-versus-state standoff, leaving the extradition question to be resolved through ordinary administrative channels.

Dropped Charges and Surveillance Footage

In the weeks following the shooting, federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and another man with attacking an ICE officer using a snow shovel and a broom stick. Those charges were dropped after investigators reviewed surveillance video and other material from the scene that contradicted Castro’s account of what transpired. The reversal underscored the gap between the officer’s sworn narrative and the physical evidence.

The Civil-Rights Question

The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to bring civil-rights charges against Castro for the shooting itself. One source familiar with internal deliberations said the department was still weighing that option. Earlier in the week, a federal prosecutor working the case told lawyers representing Sosa-Celis and other victims that senior DOJ officials had blocked a push to bring a more serious civil-rights count for the shooting. That prosecutor, Matthew Evans, was subsequently fired and placed under investigation for alleged obstruction of a grand jury probe. An automatic reply from Evans’ departmental email indicated he was “on leave.” Multiple further attempts to reach him went unanswered.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that no formal decision on civil-rights charges had been made as of the latest reporting.

Broader Context: How Long Does Justice Take?

Civil-rights prosecutions under color-of-law statutes have historically been slow. The department spent nearly a year assembling its case against Derek Chauvin in connection with George Floyd’s death, and more than two years before charging officers from the Louisiana Metro Police Department over Breonna Taylor’s killing. Those timelines suggest that even if DOJ ultimately decides to pursue civil-rights counts against Castro, the process could stretch across months or years.

What the Victim’s Lawyer Says

Robin M. Wolpert, representing Sosa-Celis, issued a statement addressing the federal indictment:

“Mr. Castro has been indicted for making false statements. But he made them to cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification. Although the evidence strongly supports civil rights charges, the federal government has grossly undercharged this case. Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes.”

The case now sits at an unusual intersection: a federal perjury-style prosecution layered atop state assault charges, a stalled extradition, a dropped set of federal charges against the victim, and an unresolved question of whether the department will pursue the most serious civil-rights counts available. For Sosa-Celis, who continues to recover from a gunshot wound to the leg, the outcome of each of those threads will determine whether the shooting receives what his legal team calls full accountability.