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

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

Activelifezero.com – For the first time in the history of the Justice Department’s oversight of immigration enforcement, a federal prosecutor has indicted an agent for conduct carried out while on duty during the wave of nationwide immigration operations that drew intense public scrutiny earlier this year. Christian Castro, an officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, turned himself in to authorities on Thursday and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Friday. Multiple people familiar with the matter confirmed that the indictment carries several counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

The charges have not yet been made publicly available, but their existence marks a sharp departure from how the department has handled prior on-duty shootings by federal immigration agents. Minnesota state prosecutors had already moved against Castro in May, filing charges of second-degree assault and making a false report. Those state-level counts remain active and run parallel to the new federal case.

The Shooting and What Footage Revealed

The incident that triggered both sets of charges unfolded after ICE officers attempted to pull over a truck belonging to an undocumented immigrant named Joffre Barrera. Behind the wheel was Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, a DoorDash driver and cousin of the truck’s owner. Aljorna drove off from the officers, then ran from the vehicle and was tackled steps away from the apartment of his cousin, 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant.

Sosa-Celis called for Aljorna to come inside. Once both cousins were behind the apartment door, a single shot rang out. Minnesota prosecutors allege that Castro fired through the door and struck Sosa-Celis in the back of the leg.

“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,” Sosa-Celis said during a Facebook livestream from a hospital bed at the time of the incident.

Federal prosecutors had 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 footage and other material from the scene that conflicted with Castro’s account of what happened. Federal prosecutors subsequently told the judge overseeing the case against Sosa-Celis that the agents had made “false statements” under oath. Former ICE Director Todd Lyons later confirmed publicly that the Justice Department was investigating what he described as “untruthful statements.”

Extradition Standoff and Administrative Leave

Castro and a second agent involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave shortly after the shooting. Castro was later detained in a Texas jail, where he remained 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 extradition dispute, leaving the question to the governors and courts of the two states.

The Civil-Rights Question Still Unresolved

The most consequential open question in the case is whether the Justice Department will bring civil-rights charges against Castro for the shooting itself. One source familiar with internal deliberations said the department is still weighing that decision. Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor working the case told lawyers representing Sosa-Celis and other victims that department officials had blocked the push to bring a more serious civil-rights charge 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’ department email stated he was “on leave.” Multiple attempts to reach him directly 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.

The delay is not unusual in the department’s history. It took nearly a year before the Justice Department brought a civil-rights case against Derek Chauvin in connection with George Floyd’s death, and more than two years elapsed before the department charged officers from the Louisiana Metro Police Department connected to Breonna Taylor’s killing. Color-of-law cases, as they are known internally, have historically consumed months or years of investigation before charges are filed.

Defense and Victim-Side Response

Castro’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment. His state charges in Minnesota continue independently of the federal indictment.

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

“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 indictment, while historically significant for signaling that the department will hold immigration agents accountable for post-incident deception, leaves the central question unanswered: whether the act of shooting a man through a closed apartment door will itself be prosecuted as a violation of his constitutional rights. Until that decision is made, the case will proceed on the narrower question of whether Castro told the truth to federal investigators about what he saw, what he heard, and why he pulled the trigger.