Minnesota Sues Greg Abbott Over Refusal to Extradite ICE Agent

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbott to force him to extradite Christian Castro, a 52-year-old ICE officer who is charged with shooting a Venezuelan man through the front door of his home in Minneapolis. Castro is currently in the Cameron County jail on the Texas-Mexico border and Abbott has refused to sign the extradition warrant.

On January 14, Castro and three other ICE agents were chasing Alfredo Aljorna, a Venezuelan man, in an unmarked vehicle as part of the Trump administration’s terrorist Operation Metro Surge. Aljorna made it to his home where he lives with three other adults and three children. Castro fired his gun through the front door and hit Aljorna’s roommate, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, in the leg. The bullet lodged in a child’s bedroom wall.

Then Castro lied, like all ICE terrorists do, and told federal investigators that the two men had attacked him with a shovel and a broom to avoid arrest. Federal prosecutors initially charged both victims with assaulting a law enforcement officer based on Castro’s account. Those charges were dropped when a surveillance camera showed the video didn’t match anything that Castro said. The men never touched him. Also, even though NO ONE should be shot for any reason, both Aljorna and Sosa-Celis are legally in the country. This was never the “illegal migrant” story ICE and Fox tried to spin.

ICE placed Castro on leave in February and their interim director, Todd Lyons, said Castro was under investigation for lying under oath, which is a federal crime. Then Minnesota state prosecutors charged Castro in May, and ICE reversed course and called that prosecution “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.” So a lying, gun-firing POS ICE officer is now suddenly a newly minted martyr, according to the same agency that was investigating him four months earlier.

Ellison’s lawsuit says that Castro’s been making calls from the Cameron County jail to a woman in Mexico, and on those calls he’s been talking about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he gets out. Under Texas law, if the extradition isn’t processed within 90 days, he walks…and that deadline’s next week. Cameron County is on the border. If he’s released, he crosses the bridge, and justice never sees him again.

Abbott knows all of this but he’s still refusing to sign.

Texas Rangers arrested Castro on May 29. Four days later, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sent Abbott an extradition request. Per Ellison’s office, Abbott has “withheld a rendition warrant” ever since. “Now, Governor Abbott is trying to shield Castro from being held accountable for these serious charges by refusing to extradite him to Minnesota,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. “Abbott’s refusal to extradite Castro is unconstitutional and violates federal law and Texas law. I will not stand for that, so I’m taking Abbott to court. Christian Castro will stand trial in Minnesota.” ABC News reached out to Abbott’s office for a response, and of course he hasn’t given one..

The lawsuit also names Manuel Trevino, the Cameron County sheriff, as a defendant, alleging that his office has failed to make Castro available for extradition. Ellison’s office says they’re also requesting a temporary restraining order to prevent the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office from releasing Castro before the extradition question is resolved. Sheriff Trevino declined to comment.

Article IV, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution is called the Extradition Clause. It says that a person charged with a felony in one state who is found in another state has to be delivered back to the state that charged him. It’s one of the earliest binding rules the founders wrote into the Constitution that Republicans love sh*tting on. Greg Abbott is currently violating it and I don’t see any Constitution “loving” Republicans say a word about it.

Greg Abbott is running for re-election and he sees Gina Hinojosa is polling within one point of him. Signing an extradition warrant to send a shooting ICE agent to a blue state where he’ll actually face trial would be seen by his MAGA base as a betrayal. So Abbott is choosing his base over the Constitution. He runs the play until the polls close and worry about consequences after.

This is the same Texas that goes after women who are suspected of having an abortion. This is the same Texas whose bounty law lets private citizens sue anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion for at least $10,000. This is the same Texas whose Attorney General Ken Paxton went after Kate Cox in court to prevent her from getting a medically necessary abortion. This is the same Texas whose maternal wards are closing and whose maternal mortality rate leads the country because doctors won’t intervene during a miscarriage for fear of prosecution.

This state is going out of its way to protect an ICE agent who fired a gun into a house with kids in it and then lied about it to send two innocent people to prison. Texas will haul a grieving mother into court for a miscarriage but will drag its feet to process paperwork to send a shooting suspect to trial. Are we surprised though? This is the same state that did nothing after Uvalde, simply turning to Greg Abbott who said “it could have been worse”.

Minnesota is prosecuting Castro now because his lie was caught on video and there was evidence in a child’s bedroom wall, but Operation Metro Surge produced two other bodies in the same month. Renée Good was killed by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the VA, was killed by two CBP officers on January 24, 2026. I hope Ellison’s office is preparing for going after the next two also.

From Texas to Minnesotans: thank you. This is what accountability looks like, and you’re showing the rest of the country what it should look like.

1. Read the reporting from the Texas Tribune, CBS Minnesota, and the Washington Post.

2. Call Greg Abbott’s office at (512) 463-2000 and tell him to sign the extradition warrant on Christian Castro before the clock runs out.

3. Share this article with a Republican relative who says they care about law and order. Ask them what “law and order” means to them if the Constitution’s Extradition Clause is being ignored to hide away a shooting suspect.

4. Early voting in Texas runs October 19 through October 30 and includes a Saturday and Sunday in most counties.

5. Register to vote. Head to votetexas.gov, fill out the application, print it, sign it, and mail it to your county elections office, or drop it off in person. No printer? The same site lets you request a postage-paid paper application by mail. Get it postmarked by October 5, the deadline for the November 3 election.

6. On November 3, vote Gina Hinojosa for Governor against Greg Abbott. Vote James Talarico for U.S. Senate against Ken Paxton. Vote Vikki Goodwin for Lieutenant Governor against Dan Patrick. Vote Ben Flores for Land Commissioner. Vote Dem down-ballot.

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See y’all tomorrow.