Texas delays extradition of ICE officer charged with assault in Minnesota
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Minnesota sought the extradition of ICE officer Christian Castro, charged with four felonies, but Texas has not complied, leading to his release after a 90-day detention limit.
Minnesota prosecutors have charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro with four felony counts of second-degree assault after he fired a gun into a Minneapolis home in January, injuring a 24-year-old Venezuelan migrant. The state requested Castro’s extradition from Texas, where he was arrested following a nationwide warrant.
Governor Greg Abbott’s office did not respond to the request for three months and later asked the Texas secretary of state to determine whether Castro qualified as a fugitive. Texas law limits extradition detentions to 90 days; when that period expired, a Texas judge ordered Castro’s release.
Minnesota filed a lawsuit to compel Texas to honor the extradition request, noting that the state had previously fulfilled 11 extradition requests from Texas in an average of less than 30 days. The lawsuit also argued that Castro might flee to Mexico, which could further delay proceedings.
A federal judge ruled that the state cannot force a Texas county sheriff to release Castro or compel Governor Abbott to sign the extradition warrant, citing the Constitution’s lack of a specific time frame for interstate extradition responses. The judge expressed uncertainty about Texas’s interpretation of “fugitive” under case law.
The Department of Justice has indicated that it is reviewing whether to bring federal charges against Castro for the same incident, though no decision has been announced.
The case occurs amid broader political tensions between state officials over immigration enforcement and extradition practices.