A federal judge in Texas is expected to rule Wednesday on a request to have an ICE agent extradited to Minnesota.
Christian Castro, an agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Minnesota authorities have been seeking to have him extradited since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico.
A judge has promised to announce Wednesday whether he would order Texas to extradite Castro or allow him to be released.
During an emergent hearing Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's legal team argued that Abbott has no discretion in this case.
The case is complicated by the fact that the U.S Department of Justice is considering charging Castro as well, and Castro himself could be set free as a deadline for holding him ends Thursday.
Texas law says he must be released after 90 days of detention, which is Thursday. Minnesota’s governor and attorney general filed a lawsuit asking a judge to compel Texas to return Castro to their state and to keep the Cameron County sheriff from releasing him until his extradition.
Twin Cities defense attorney Joe Tamburino says Texas's 90-day hold law could complicate things.
"Now the issue really becomes is what happens if Mr. Castro is released on Thursday and the judge hasn't completed his order," Tamburino told WCCO's Drivetime with DeRusha. "I mean, we don't know. Mr. Castro could be released, there's no order and therefore the whole thing is moot because he's walking on the street again."
Tamburino adds that extradition cases usually aren't this dramatic.
"As long as the warrant basically dots all the I's and crosses all the T's, and as long as the person, the fugitive who's in the other state, is the actual person on the warrant, it's a no-brainer," Tamburino explains. "The person is extradited. I still fail to see why it's taken so long."
Castro is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
At a federal hearing Tuesday in Brownsville before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., attorneys with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office argued it would be hard to compel Castro to face charges in their state if he is released, and even harder if he flees.
Rodriguez said he was inclined not to keep the sheriff from releasing Castro, but he said he would provide an order responding to the temporary restraining order on Wednesday.
Attorneys representing the Texas Governor’s Office said the governor has not yet officially decided to deny or grant Minnesota’s extradition request and therefore the lawsuit is premature.
“I think ripeness is a significant issue,” Rodriguez told attorneys.
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an internal state investigation to determine if Castro is legally considered a “fugitive.” Trevor W. Ezell, Abbott's general counsel, also questioned whether the court could impose a deadline for the governor to respond to an extradition request.
“There’s nothing legally left for them to investigate,” Kimberly Ann Svendsen, an attorney representing the Minnesota attorney general, told the judge.
Abbott said last week that he would not respond to the extradition request, citing ongoing investigations of fraud in government social service programs in Minnesota, which President Donald Trump used to justify his immigration crackdown there.
(Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this story)
