The Fight Between Texas and Minnesota Should Never Have Gotten This Far

In the 17 days between the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, another violent incident took place in Minneapolis that received far less attention.

An ICE agent allegedly fired a shot into a home, wounding a fleeing man in the leg; the bullet lodged near a child’s playpen inside the house.

That shooting is now the subject of a legal dispute between Minnesota and Texas that calls into question one of the most basic premises of the Constitution: that states will engage with one another in good faith for the perpetuation of the union.

In May, officials in Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, filed criminal charges in state court against the ICE agent, Christian Castro.

But Castro had left Minnesota for Texas, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott was refusing to return him.

Last week, Castro walked free from a Texas jail after a federal judge declined to force the extradition.

“Even though we are separate states, we also function as the United States” because of reliable collaboration between state governments, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told me.

But now, she worries, “somebody can commit a crime in one state and flee to another state, and depending on what the political views or whims are of the governor in that state, that person may not go back to face those charges.

How can that be a standard that we can live with?” Minnesota’s case against Castro was never going to be easy.

Immediately after the shooting, Castro claimed that the men he was chasing, Julio Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Aljorna, had attacked him with a shovel and broom in a prolonged struggle before Castro fired and wounded Sosa-Celis.

The Justice Department brought charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna over the assault—only to drop the case a month later, shortly before ICE and DOJ began investigating whether Castro lied about having been attacked.

Castro and his ICE partner were suspended and placed under investigation by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles officer misconduct, and by the Justice Department.

Moriarty later announced state charges against Castro over the shooting and his alleged lying to law enforcement. (Castro has not made any public statements regarding the case and has not entered a plea.) The decision to indict Castro queued up a lengthy and potentially risky legal fight over a state’s ability to bring criminal charges against a federal officer.