NEW YORK, NY, August 27, 2026 — On Wednesday, a federal judge denied this week’s request to mandate that Texas extradite a jailed ICE agent back to Minnesota. The ruling allows for Christian Castro to be freed from custody Thursday. Charges against Castro stem from an immigration raid in Minneapolis, during which he allegedly fired a weapon.
Castro, 52, is accused of shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man, in the leg during a raid. Four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon were filed against him in Minnesota. A misdemeanor charge for falsely reporting a crime connected to the incident has also been filed against him.
The Interstate Extradition Dispute
Since his arrest May 29 by Texas Rangers, Castro has been held in Brownsville, Texas. The arrest was made on a warrant out of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Texas law only allows suspects to be held for 90 days for extradition, as outlined in the overview of Operation Metro Surge Details.
Why the Judge Rejected Immediate Intervention
Minnesota asked a court to require Texas Governor Greg Abbott to sign extradition documents. Abbott had neither formally rejected the request nor approved it. In a filing Monday, Abbott asked whether Castro was even legally a fugitive.
Abbott contended that Castro didn’t run away from Minnesota and instead was sent to Texas by the Department of Homeland Security. Minnesota argued it was irrelevant under federal extradition law how Castro ended up in Texas. Lawyers for the states argued that the Constitution requires state cooperation in any case.
The dispute was legally premature for judicial intervention, federal magistrate Fernando Rodriguez Jr. determined. He discovered Abbott had not been demonstrated to have decisively refused the extradition request. Rodriguez decided the law didn’t compel Abbott to operate under a timetable dictated by Minnesota, a standard discussed further in the Britannica Legal Case Overview.
Rodriguez heard from both sides in oral arguments on Thursday and issued the ruling Friday. Minnesota officials had warned Castro was a flight risk, based on calls he placed to a woman in Mexico. Details detailing interstate jurisdictional governance can be located via the U.S. Department of Justice Manual on Interstate Extradition.
Legal experts say the case tests the boundaries of interstate extradition law when federal agencies shift their bases elsewhere. The attorney general of Minnesota has not ruled out going after Castro again when he is a free man, a process tracked on the Hennepin County Attorney Office Website.
