MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
An ICE officer is facing federal charges in connection with the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This incident took place in January during Operation Metro Surge. That was the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this. And he's with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So who is this officer? And what is he charged with?
LUCAS: Well, the defendant here is Christian Castro. He was, as you said, an officer with ICE. He's facing six counts of making false statements, so in other words, of lying to investigators about a shooting in January in Minnesota and the circumstances that led up to that shooting. That is according to a person who's familiar with the matter, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation. I am also told that Castro turned himself in to federal authorities yesterday in Texas, so he is now in custody.
Now, Castro's name may ring a bell for you, and that's because he has been in the news. We've talked about him on this program. He's the same ICE officer who's been at the center of a legal fight between Minnesota and Texas. That legal battle revolved around a separate set of criminal charges that local prosecutors in Minnesota had brought against him connected to the same shooting. Castro was in Texas, Minnesota wanted Texas to extradite him, Texas' governor refused to do so. And Castro, in the end, was released from a Texas jail last week. Now, though, of course, he's facing these new, separate federal charges brought by the Justice Department.
MARTIN: What is it that he allegedly lied about?
LUCAS: Well, the charges are still under seal. So we don't have all the details yet. But back in January when the shooting happened, DHS said two Venezuelan men had ambushed and attacked Castro with a snow shovel and a broomstick after a targeted traffic stop. And it said that Castro had opened fire in self-defense. Federal prosecutors even brought assault charges against the two Venezuelan men, including the one who was shot in the leg in the incident.
But soon after that, prosecutors dropped those charges because video evidence had emerged that contradicted Castro's claims about the shooting. DHS then had to climb down from its perch. It said Castro and another ICE officer appear to have made untruthful statements in sworn testimony about the shooting. The two ICE officers were put on administrative leave. And since then, Minnesota authorities have said that Castro actually fired his gun through a closed door.
MARTIN: Let me point out that the person who was shot did survive.
LUCAS: He did, yeah.
MARTIN: Correct? OK. So this seems like a rare instance in the Trump administration in which a federal immigration officer is potentially being held accountable for alleged misconduct. How significant is this?
LUCAS: Well, it is certainly rare. I will say, though, that the attorney for the Venezuelan man who was shot by Castro says this doesn't go far enough. She says the Justice Department has grossly undercharged this case and that Castro should be facing more severe civil rights charges. It's also worth noting that no one has been charged for the killings of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed by federal immigration officers during the same major enforcement operation in Minneapolis earlier this year by the Trump administration.
And shootings involving immigration officers are not uncommon. They do keep happening. There have been more than 20 such shootings under this administration, the second Trump administration, including two fatal ones in July, one in Texas and the other in Maine.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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