Lying ICE Officer Exposed After Framing Innocent Victims in the Minnesota Immigrant Shooting

A federal immigration officer fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home, wounded an innocent man, then lied to the FBI about what he had done. For months, the Department of Homeland Security publicly backed his story.

On 18 May 2026, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced criminal charges against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro, 52, in connection with the 14 January shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa‑Celis, a Venezuelan national lawfully present in the United States. A nationwide warrant has been issued for Castro's arrest. The charges, four counts of second‑degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, represent a direct contradiction of the official account that DHS published the day after the shooting, an account that remains on the agency's website.

A Federal Narrative That Collapsed Under Video Evidence

On 15 January 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued a press release identifying Sosa‑Celis and two other men as 'criminal illegal aliens' who had 'violently assaulted law enforcement with a shovel and broom handle in an attempt to evade arrest'. Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident 'an attempted murder of federal law enforcement', stating that the officer 'fired a defensive shot' while being 'ambushed'. The statement described the officer as badly beaten and hospitalised.

City surveillance footage told a different story. According to the criminal complaint filed by Hennepin County, Sosa‑Celis was standing in his front yard holding a snow shovel when Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, his cousin, who had been working a DoorDash delivery shift, pulled up and sprinted towards the house. Castro chased Aljorna, tackled him, and the two briefly struggled on the ground. Sosa‑Celis tossed the snow shovel to the ground and stepped back. The footage shows the shovel remained on the ground for the rest of the incident.

After Aljorna broke free and entered the home with Sosa‑Celis, Castro rose from the ground, stood alone in the front yard, and fired a single shot through the closed front door. The bullet struck Sosa‑Celis in the right leg, passed through a closet, and lodged in the wall of a child's bedroom. Four adults and two children were inside the home at the time.

'Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home, knowing there were people who had just run inside that presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else,' Moriarty said at a press conference. 'He was not hit by a shovel or a broom. In fact, he was not hit at all.'

Mistaken Identity, Innocent Men, and a Cover Story

Moriarty confirmed that both Sosa‑Celis and Aljorna were in Minnesota lawfully, and that the original operation was built on mistaken identity. Yet within hours of the shooting, federal authorities charged both men with assaulting a federal officer, charges that Sosa‑Celis and Aljorna each faced while recovering from the incident and its aftermath.

Those charges were dismissed with prejudice in February 2026, after Minnesota prosecutors determined that new evidence was 'materially inconsistent with the allegations' against the men. The dismissal came after then‑acting ICE Director Todd Lyons made a remarkable public admission on 12 February: 'Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements.' Both officers were placed on administrative leave. Lyons acknowledged at the time that 'lying under oath is a serious federal offence.'

Despite that admission, the DHS press release describing the men as violent criminals remained published on the department's website as of the filing of Monday's charges. Castro, for his part, maintained his account even when interviewed by the FBI, according to the complaint. Prosecutors say his sworn statement, that he was assaulted by three men with a broom and a shovel, was contradicted by video evidence, physical evidence, and the accounts of the victims themselves.

'Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,' Moriarty said. 'There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other.'

A Pattern of Alleged Misconduct During Operation Metro Surge

Castro's charges do not stand alone. They arrive within a broader reckoning over Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign that deployed approximately 3,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area beginning in late November 2025. DHS called it the largest immigration enforcement operation in the agency's history.

Beyond the charged agent, Operation Metro Surge left a wider trail of contested incidents. ICE agents shot and killed two United States citizens during separate confrontations, Renee Good, 37, a mother of young children, on 7 January, and Alex Pretti, 37, a nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, on 24 January. Both deaths were captured on video and triggered nationwide protests. Moriarty's office has opened criminal investigations into 14 additional cases of potentially unlawful conduct by federal agents during the operation.

Jurisdiction, Accountability, and What Comes Next

The Castro case has sharpened a constitutional confrontation between state and federal authority. The Trump administration has suggested that Minnesota prosecutors lack jurisdiction to charge federal officers for conduct carried out in the line of duty. Moriarty rejected that position unambiguously on Monday.

Castro is not currently in custody. A nationwide warrant has been issued, though legal experts have noted that extradition from a politically allied state could complicate enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on the charges against Castro.

The case illustrates how the initial government narrative, amplified at the cabinet level, bolstered by criminal charges against the victims, and repeated across federal communications, was constructed on the sworn statements of officers who, by their own agency's subsequent admission, lied. For Sosa‑Celis, who was shot in his own home while lawfully present in the country, the criminal charges against him were eventually erased. The question now before the courts is whether the man who fired the bullet will face the same accountability.