ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in shooting of Venezuelan man

Federal authorities have charged a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, Christian Castro, with providing false information to investigators regarding the shooting of a Venezuelan man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, during a Minneapolis immigration crackdown. The charges, still under seal, follow Castro's release from jail last week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott refused to extradite him to Minnesota, where he faces separate charges of assault and making false statements about the shooting incident.

Initially, federal prosecutors alleged that Sosa-Celis and another man had assaulted an ICE officer using a broom handle and a snow shovel. However, video evidence later cast doubt on these claims, prompting the federal prosecutors to drop the charges against the men involved. A federal prosecutor handling the case reportedly informed Sosa-Celis' legal team that the Justice Department had blocked their efforts to bring a more serious civil rights charge against Castro for the shooting.

However, this assertion was disputed by the source familiar with the investigation, suggesting that the civil rights probe is ongoing and that a final decision on additional charges has not been made. The prosecutor, Matthew Evans, was fired and is currently under investigation for allegedly obstructing a grand jury probe. Castro was initially arrested in May and held in custody in Brownsville, Texas, while Minnesota officials sought his extradition.

The release of Castro was delayed due to ongoing fraud investigations in Minnesota's social service programs, which the Trump administration used to justify the immigration crackdown. Castro's lawyers have not yet responded to inquiries regarding the allegations against him.