"Justice Demands No Less"... ICE Agent Arrested in Minnesota for Shooting Immigrant

Local Prosecutors Locate and Arrest the Suspect Themselves

In January of this year, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fired a gun during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota was arrested in Texas.

On the 29th (local time), an ICE agent was on guard as a protester held a sign in front of Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, USA. The photo is not directly related to the content of the article. Photo by AFP Yonhap News Agency

On the 29th (local time), the Associated Press reported that ICE agent Christian Castro was arrested in Texas. Castro has been indicted on four counts of second-degree assault and one count of filing a false report for shooting and injuring Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis at a residence in Minneapolis on January 14.

At the time, Castro and another agent were pursuing another immigrant, Alfredo Alejandro Alzorna, when they fired toward the entrance of an apartment in Minneapolis where both Alzorna and Sosa-Celis were living, injuring Sosa-Celis in the thigh. Castro testified that he had to fire his weapon because Alzorna and Sosa-Celis attacked him with a snow shovel. However, after reviewing footage from city security cameras, authorities determined that Castro's claim that the immigrants attacked first with the shovel was false. Furthermore, both Venezuelan immigrants were staying in the United States legally.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said, "I am pleased that we have secured custody of Castro and can bring him to trial," adding, "Justice demands no less." However, ICE countered, saying, "This is nothing more than an illegal and political show."

Minneapolis was previously a region where the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump conducted extensive immigration crackdowns. There was significant controversy at the time as ICE agents shot and killed U.S. citizens Rene Good and Alex Pretty. Minnesota leadership and the Trump administration also clashed over who had the authority to investigate and prosecute federal agents on duty. Hennepin County in Minnesota, which is leading the prosecution of Castro, is also investigating the shooting deaths of Rene Good and Alex Pretty.

Meanwhile, the U.S. think tank Brookings Institution stated that the Trump administration's expansion of ICE operations had an overall chilling effect on local economies, leading to a reduction of 668,000 jobs. Researchers analyzed 86 U.S. cities where ICE arrests surged in the first half of 2025 and estimated that, on average, 13 jobs disappeared for every additional arrest. The impact was especially severe in industries such as construction, where the proportion of undocumented immigrant workers is high. The research team analyzed that as ICE crackdowns became a daily news topic, residents went out and spent less, prompting companies to cut their workforce.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.