Gov. Abbott Thumbs His Nose At Minnesota’s ICE Officer Extradition Lawsuit: ‘Doomed To Fail’

The officer stands accused of injuring a Venezuelan man in the leg by firing a gun at the front door of an occupied Minneapolis home on Jan. 14 amid an immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. Castro had allegedly told investigators he opened fire in self-defense after being hit with a shovel and a broom, only for video footage to undercut the officer’s claim.

Abbott has refused to sign a rendition warrant that would pave the way for the officer to return to Minnesota for trial.

In the new filing, the governor’s lawyers raised doubts that Castro qualifies for the Constitution’s extradition requirement. It demands a state return defendants facing criminal charges who “flee from Justice” when they are “found in another State.” Abbott has suggested Castro didn’t flee because ICE had ordered him to return to Texas.

“The ordinary meaning of a fugitive entails a volitional act of fleeing, not mere involuntary movement across state lines,” his lawyers wrote.

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Minnesota insists that Abbott’s role is ministerial, and the state wants a judge to immediately pave the way for the officer to be returned.

“The Framers of the Constitution and Congress intended the interstate extradition process to be a swift, summary one in which the state into which a defendant travels promptly returns a fugitive as soon as the requesting state demands it,” the state wrote in court filings last week.

Abbott cautioned he hasn’t yet made a final decision on the extradition request. But his new filing said that any notion Minnesota could unilaterally enforce the extradition power was “doomed to fail.” His filing also took shots at Walz for pardoning a man charged with sexually assaulting a minor.

“Equity favors those with clean hands,” Abbott’s lawyers wrote.

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It's because you're a performative liberal hack and we don't believe you… — signed Gov. Abbott.

— anadromous jones (@zhamm) August 18, 2026

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I wonder how much better life would be for Minnesotans if their AG went after criminals the way he’s going after the ICE Agent.

— Eddie Glasper (@AstrocityEddie) August 18, 2026

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One, Supremacy Clause; Ellison is entirely in the wrong. Two, ILLEGAL ALIENS, you lying dolts.

— TMGFlorida (@TMGFlorida) August 18, 2026

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Minnesota’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday, accusing the Republican of refusing to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer facing state charges in connection with a nonfatal shooting of a migrant earlier this year.

Christian Castro faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime linked to the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Castro was arrested in May by Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General agents and Texas Rangers.

Since then, however, Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, says Abbott has held up Castro’s extradition back to Minnesota for nearly three months, the lawsuit filed in a Texas federal court Tuesday alleges.

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