They Shot Through a Door. Then They Lied About It. Now the ICE Agent Is Under Arrest

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ICE agent Christian Castro shot a Venezuelan man through a front door, then told supervisors he was attacked with a snow shovel. Video proved the lie. Federal charges against the victims were dropped. Now Castro is in custody in Texas. Here's the full story.

On the night of January 14, 2026, four ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle chased a Venezuelan man named Alfredo Aljorna through the streets of Minneapolis. Aljorna ran. He later told investigators the reason was simple: he didn't know who was chasing him. Unmarked car. No uniforms visible. He fled.

The chase ended at his home — a Minneapolis duplex he shared with his roommate, Julio Sosa-Celis, and several other people. Aljorna got inside. ICE agent Christian Castro, 52, approached the front door.

Then Castro fired his weapon through the closed door.

Sosa-Celis, on the other side, was shot in the leg. He had nothing to do with the vehicle chase. He was in the wrong place. He was in his own home.

What happened next is the part that transforms this from a single use-of-force incident into something that goes to the heart of what accountability looks like when federal agents operate outside the oversight that normally applies to law enforcement.

Castro told his ICE supervisors a different story. He said Aljorna and Sosa-Celis had attacked him with a snow shovel and a broom. Based on that account — given under oath, to federal investigators — the Justice Department charged both Venezuelan men with assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Both men were in the United States legally. Both had arrived through the federal government's Temporary Protected Status program — the same program the Trump administration is now seeking to eliminate. Both were victims, not perpetrators. And for weeks, they faced federal criminal charges based on the account of the man who shot them.

Then the video surfaced.

Minneapolis police footage showed what actually happened at the door. No snow shovel. No broom. No attack. The Justice Department reviewed the footage and dropped the charges, admitting in court that its agents had made "false statements." ICE issued a statement acknowledging the same.

On May 29, 2026, Castro was arrested in Harlingen, Texas. On July 8, he was booked into Cameron County Jail on a Minnesota arrest warrant. He faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

He is the first ICE agent to face criminal charges for violence committed during Operation Metro Surge — the three-month federal enforcement blitz that brought thousands of federal agents to the Twin Cities beginning in January 2026, left at least two people dead, and became the defining crisis of the administration's enforcement surge in Minnesota.

Operation Metro Surge: What It Was

To understand the shooting, you need to understand the operation.

Operation Metro Surge launched in January 2026 as one of the Trump administration's signature enforcement actions — a concentrated deployment of federal agents from ICE, CBP, the FBI, DEA, ATF, and US Marshals into the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, targeting what DHS described as criminal gang members and violent repeat offenders.

The reality on the ground was more chaotic. In the weeks that followed the operation's launch, a cascade of incidents exposed the gap between the stated mission and the actual execution:

Date	Incident
Jan. 7, 2026	Renée Good, a 33-year-old mother of three, fatally shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis. DHS Secretary Noem later called American citizens killed in the operation "domestic terrorists."
Jan. 14, 2026	Christian Castro shoots Julio Sosa-Celis through a front door. Both Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Aljorna — both on TPS, both in the US legally — charged with assaulting law enforcement based on Castro's false account.
Feb. 2026	Video evidence emerges contradicting Castro's account. Federal charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna dropped. ICE and DOJ admit agents made false statements.
April 2026	ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. charged with assault for pointing a gun at the heads of two people on a highway during Metro Surge operations.
May 18, 2026	Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announces criminal charges against Castro.
May 29, 2026	Castro arrested in Harlingen, Texas, by Texas Rangers, DHS Office of Inspector General investigators, and Minnesota BCA.
July 8, 2026	Castro booked into Cameron County Jail, Texas, on Minnesota arrest warrant.

The operation also produced weeks of protests in Minneapolis, lawsuits from both the city and state governments, and a congressional hearing at which DHS Secretary Noem declined to retract her characterization of killed US citizens as "domestic terrorists."

The Cover-Up: How a Lie Became Federal Charges Against the Victims

This is the element that distinguishes the Castro case from a typical use-of-force dispute.

A use-of-force incident where an officer makes a split-second decision that turns out to be wrong — where circumstances are genuinely unclear, where reasonable people can disagree about what happened — is one category of case. Courts and prosecutors handle these regularly, and they are genuinely difficult.

What happened here was different. Castro, after shooting Sosa-Celis through a closed front door, told his supervisors a specific, detailed story: the two Venezuelan men attacked him with a snow shovel and a broom. That story was the basis for federal criminal charges against both men. Federal prosecutors filed those charges. The men were arrested, charged, and faced prosecution — based entirely on the account of the person who shot them.

The story was false. The video showed it. ICE acknowledged its agents made "false statements" under oath.

The sequence matters:

Agent shoots man through front door
Agent tells supervisors the men attacked him — story is false
Federal prosecutors charge the men with assault based on the false story
Video surfaces contradicting the story
Federal charges against the victims are dropped
State charges filed against the agent for both the shooting and the false report

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty put it plainly in her statement when charges were filed against Castro: "Christian Castro's alleged shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis appears unwarranted, as evidenced by the lies Castro told his ICE supervisors to justify his unlawful actions."

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison added: "In Minnesota, we believe in equal justice under the law. That means nobody is above the law, including agents of the federal government."

The Constitutional Battle: Can States Prosecute Federal Agents?

This is the legal question that makes the Castro case significant far beyond Minneapolis.

The Constitution's Supremacy Clause gives the federal government broad immunity from state prosecution for actions taken in the course of federal duties. Federal agents operating under federal authority have historically been shielded from state criminal charges — even when their conduct would clearly constitute a crime if committed by a private citizen or a local officer.

Castro's lawyers, when they emerge, will almost certainly argue that any state prosecution is preempted by federal law — that Minnesota cannot prosecute a federal agent for actions taken during a federal immigration operation. Courts have generally agreed with this position in past cases.

But Hennepin County Attorney Moriarty's office released a detailed video explaining their legal theory for why they believe state prosecution is appropriate in this case. The argument centers on two elements:

First: The Supremacy Clause protects federal agents acting within the scope of lawful federal authority. Shooting an unarmed man through a front door without legal justification is not, they argue, within the scope of lawful federal authority — it is a crime, and crimes are not protected by federal immunity.

Second: The false statement charge — lying to supervisors about what happened — is separate from any claim of immunity for the shooting itself. A federal agent lying to investigators about the circumstances of a shooting is not a protected federal act.

Whether this legal theory succeeds in court is genuinely uncertain. Moriarty's office has acknowledged "an uphill battle" on the constitutional question. But they are proceeding — and the arrest of Castro in Texas, with the cooperation of DHS's own Office of Inspector General and the Texas Rangers, suggests this is not a case they expect to collapse before it reaches a courtroom.

The precedent at stake: if Minnesota can successfully prosecute Castro, it establishes that state courts have jurisdiction over federal agents who commit crimes during enforcement operations — a significant shift in how federal accountability works.

If Minnesota cannot prosecute Castro — if federal courts dismiss the charges on Supremacy Clause grounds — it establishes that federal agents operating during immigration enforcement operations face no state-level criminal accountability regardless of what they do.

The Pattern: Castro Is Not Alone

The Castro case is the most advanced criminal proceeding, but it did not emerge in isolation. Operation Metro Surge produced a cluster of documented incidents that collectively paint a picture of an enforcement operation with insufficient oversight:

Renée Good — a 33-year-old American mother of three — was fatally shot by a federal agent on January 7, 2026, during the operation. The Justice Department said the FBI was conducting a civil rights investigation. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said there was "no basis" for a civil rights investigation into her death. DHS Secretary Noem, when asked in congressional testimony about American citizens killed during the operation, declined to retract her characterization of them as "domestic terrorists."

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. — a second ICE agent — was charged with assault in April 2026 for pointing a gun at the heads of two people on a highway during Metro Surge operations. Morgan appeared in court in Minnesota after returning voluntarily and posting $100,000 bond.

Marimar Martinez — an American woman shot by a federal agent in Chicago in a separate incident — had federal charges brought against her based on the agent's account that she had rammed his car. Other evidence, including video and text messages of the agent "bragging about the shooting," contradicted that account. A judge dismissed the federal charges against Martinez.

The pattern that emerges across these cases: initial federal accounts contradict video evidence; charges against victims are filed based on false agent accounts; when video surfaces, federal charges are dropped; state charges against agents are filed and contested on constitutional grounds.

DHS's Response: "Unlawful" and a "Political Stunt"

The federal government's position on the Castro prosecution has been consistent and confrontational.

A DHS spokesperson called Castro's arrest "unlawful" and described it as "a political stunt," saying the agent's actions should be handled at the federal — not state — level. This framing deserves scrutiny.

The federal government's own investigation produced the admission that ICE agents made "false statements." The federal charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were dropped after the video contradicted Castro's account. The DOJ acknowledged the problem. The DHS OIG cooperated in Castro's arrest, alongside the Texas Rangers.

Calling the state prosecution a "political stunt" while the federal government's own inspector general participated in the arrest is a position that requires explaining more than it explains.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's response to Castro's arrest was more direct: "Our city was invaded, and people were shot."

What Happened to Julio Sosa-Celis

Julio Sosa-Celis came to the United States from Venezuela on Temporary Protected Status — the same humanitarian protection that the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate following the Supreme Court's June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe.

He was in his home on January 14 when a bullet came through his front door and struck him in the leg. He was on the wrong side of a door during a vehicle chase involving his roommate. He was in the United States legally. He was then charged with assault — a charge that was eventually dropped when video contradicted the agent's account.

His TPS is subject to the same termination process affecting 350,000 Haitians and other protected nationals following the Supreme Court ruling. Whether it will be renewed, extended, or terminated depends on decisions being made in Washington by the same agency that employs Christian Castro.

His attorney has not made public statements about any civil lawsuit, though civil litigation in cases like this is common.

The Broader Stakes: Who Polices the Enforcers?

The Castro case crystallizes a question that has been building throughout the Trump administration's enforcement surge: when federal agents operating under federal authority commit what appear to be crimes, who can hold them accountable?

The federal government has tools: the DOJ's civil rights division, the DHS OIG, internal affairs investigations. In this case, those tools produced an acknowledgment that agents lied — and cooperation with the state arrest. But they did not produce federal charges against Castro. The decision on whether to bring federal criminal charges against a federal agent for conduct during a federal operation rests with the same department that employs the agent.

State prosecution is the alternative. It is constitutionally contested. It is harder. It requires state prosecutors to argue against the full weight of federal immunity doctrine. Moriarty's office is making that argument.

The outcome of Minnesota v. Castro will determine, at least for now, whether the answer to "who polices the enforcers" includes state prosecutors — or whether it is limited to federal decision-makers who have, in this case, chosen not to bring charges.

Minneapolis Mayor Frey said the city was "invaded." The word is strong. It is also the word chosen by the elected mayor of one of America's largest cities to describe a federal operation on his streets.

FAQ

What exactly is Christian Castro charged with? Four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, filed by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office in Minnesota. The assault charges relate to firing his weapon through a front door and shooting Julio Sosa-Celis. The false reporting charge relates to telling supervisors that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna had attacked him with a shovel and broom — a claim video evidence contradicted.

Were the victims in the US legally? Yes. Both Julio Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Aljorna were in the United States on Temporary Protected Status — a federal humanitarian protection program. The Hennepin County Attorney confirmed both men were "in Minnesota lawfully" and that "this was a case of mistaken identity."

What happened to the federal charges against the victims? They were dropped. The Justice Department dismissed charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna after video evidence contradicted Castro's account. ICE and DOJ acknowledged their agents had made "false statements."

Why was Castro arrested in Texas, not Minnesota? Castro was located in Harlingen, Texas by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He was arrested there by Texas Rangers, DHS OIG investigators, and Minnesota BCA — a cooperative interstate arrest on the Minnesota warrant.

Can Minnesota actually prosecute a federal agent? This is legally contested. The Constitution's Supremacy Clause has traditionally shielded federal agents from state prosecution for acts within the scope of federal authority. Hennepin County has argued the shooting was not within lawful federal authority and that the false statement charge is independently prosecutable. Courts will ultimately decide whether the case proceeds.

Is Castro the only agent facing charges from Operation Metro Surge? No. ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. was also charged in Minnesota with assault for pointing a gun at the heads of two people on a highway during the operation. Morgan appeared in court after returning to Minnesota and posting bond.

Editorial Opinion — The Immigrants

The Castro case contains every element of what happens when enforcement power is deployed without adequate accountability structures.

A man shot through a door. A false account told to supervisors. Charges filed against the victims based on the lie. Video evidence contradicts the lie. Charges dropped. State charges filed. Federal government calls state prosecution "a political stunt."

The DHS statement calling Castro's arrest "unlawful" deserves a specific response: the Department of Homeland Security's own Office of Inspector General participated in the arrest. If DHS believed the arrest was unlawful, it had the authority to refuse to participate. It did not. It helped.

The Supremacy Clause argument — that federal agents cannot be prosecuted by states for acts during federal operations — has a legitimate legal foundation. It has also, in this case, produced a situation where the only criminal proceedings against Christian Castro are the ones being brought by Minnesota, because the federal government chose not to bring its own.

If federal immunity means states cannot prosecute federal agents, and federal authorities choose not to prosecute their own agents, the accountability gap is total. That is not how the rule of law is supposed to work.

Julio Sosa-Celis came to the United States from Venezuela on a humanitarian protection program. He was shot in his home by an agent who then lied about it. The men who were charged based on that lie — both of them in the country legally — spent weeks facing federal criminal prosecution before the video saved them.

DHS Secretary Noem, asked about American citizens killed during Operation Metro Surge, declined to call them anything other than "domestic terrorists."

The mayor of Minneapolis called the operation an "invasion."

Someone is right about what happened in Minneapolis in January 2026. The courts will eventually say who.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational and journalistic purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Christian Castro's case is ongoing — charges have been filed but no verdict has been reached. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The constitutional questions regarding state prosecution of federal agents have not been finally resolved. The Immigrants is not affiliated with any government agency, law firm, or advocacy organization.

Description: ICE agent Christian Castro shot a Venezuelan man through a front door, then told supervisors he was attacked with a snow shovel. Video proved the lie. Federal charges against the victims were dropped. Now Castro is in custody in Texas. Here's the full story.