By Steve Gorman
Aug 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. immigration agent was freed from a Texas jail on Thursday hours after a federal judge refused to order his extradition to Minnesota to face assault charges for shooting an unarmed Venezuelan man during last winter's deportation surge in Minneapolis.
Christian Castro, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer wanted by Minnesota authorities, was released at about 7 a.m. local time from the lockup where he had been held since his May 29 arrest in the Gulf
Coast border city of Brownsville, according to a Cameron County Sheriff's Department spokesperson.
A federal judge on Wednesday denied Minnesota's request for a court order to compel Texas Governor Greg Abbott, over his objections, to sign the rendition warrant for Castro's extradition, and to keep Castro locked up until then.
Following the ruling, Sheriff Manuel Trevino said he intended to release Castro on Thursday as required under Texas law for anyone still awaiting extradition after 90 days.
Castro's whereabouts after he walked free were not immediately known. He could not be reached for comment, and it was unclear whether he had secured legal representation.
Minnesota authorities had argued in court that Castro was a flight risk who could easily abscond to Mexico if he were released.
"Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who filed the lawsuit seeking a court-ordered extradition, said in a statement after Wednesday's ruling.
Castro is wanted in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on four felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and a charge of falsely reporting a crime.
The case stems from Castro's shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was wounded in the leg on January 14, at the height of U.S. President Donald Trump's deportation campaign in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say Castro also fabricated an account, later disproven by video evidence, that two other people attacked him with a broom handle and snow shovel.
The Minneapolis deportation sweep, called Operation Metro Surge, drew weeks of demonstrations and confrontations between protesters and ICE agents in which immigration officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens.
ICE AGENT'S FUGITIVE STATUS QUESTIONED
The case surrounding the shooting of Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, has lingered as a political flashpoint between two prominent governors over immigration control, a major campaign issue for Democrats and Republicans alike in the coming midterm congressional elections.
Abbott, a Republican, is an outspoken supporter of Trump's deportation efforts, while Minnesota's Democratic leaders, including Governor Tim Walz, have condemned Trump's surge of armed ICE patrols in Minneapolis and other cities.
In a court brief filed on Monday, Abbott questioned whether Castro should be classified as a fugitive, and thus subject to extradition, because he did not flee Minnesota but rather was reassigned to his home base in Texas by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, after the shooting.
Minnesota authorities countered that the issue of how or why Castro ended up in Texas is immaterial, and that the U.S. Constitution and federal law require states to extradite people wanted for crimes in another state.
Siding with Texas officials a day after hearing arguments in the case, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ruled on Wednesday that Abbott had not been shown to have refused the extradition request, only that he had not yet made a decision. Rodriguez concluded that the law does not require Abbott to turn over a fugitive within a certain time frame.
Rodriguez acknowledged the possibility that Castro could attempt to flee the U.S. after his release and "impose a hardship on Minnesota's prosecutorial efforts," but found that prospect does not alter his legal conclusions.
"The Court is unaware of any authority supporting the creation of a court-imposed deadline under these circumstances," Rodriguez, appointed to the federal bench during Trump's first term in the White House, wrote in his 13-page opinion.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
