An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot a man in Minneapolis could be released from a Texas jail this week despite still being wanted on criminal charges in Minnesota.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ruled against Minnesota’s attempt to force Texas to turn over Christian Castro, 52, concluding that the state’s lawsuit was filed too soon.
“Based on the current record, the court concludes that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the case is not ripe for adjudication,” Rodriguez, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump in 2018, wrote.
Minnesota sued when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to approve what is legally supposed to be “a summary procedure” in which a governor acquiesces to another state’s request to send a defendant to that state to face charges.
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However, the judge said that technically Abbott hasn’t said no — he just hasn’t made a decision yet.
“Governor Abbott has not denied the request for a rendition warrant,” Rodriguez wrote. “Minnesota alleges that Governor Abbott has ‘refused to sign’ and has ‘with[eld]’ the rendition warrant. But the record reflects only that Governor Abbott has neither agreed nor refused to sign the rendition warrant as to Castro.”
Texas law only allows the state to jail someone for up to 90 days when that person is a fugitive wanted in another state.
In court, Minnesota had alternatively asked that Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño not release Castro from jail until the Texas governor signed a rendition warrant. However, Rodriguez wrote that “no grounds support a temporary restraining order requiring Sheriff Trevino to ignore the dictates of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement that Abbott was “playing with constitutional fire.”
“This case should concern officials and citizens of every state. If a governor can delay extraditions and cherry-pick cases according to their political tastes, then no state will be able to hold fugitive criminals accountable,” Ellison said.
Castro was arrested in May by Texas Rangers who were flanked by investigators with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Since then, ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility has monitored Castro’s jail calls and turned over summaries of those conversations to Minnesota investigators.
Minnesota officials told the judge that Castro has been in communication with a girlfriend in Mexico and plans to reunite with her south of the border. That situation has led Minnesota officials to warn about the possibility that Castro will flee the country.
Abbott’s decision not to abide by Minnesota’s request comes after years of political stunts to draw attention to his hard-line anti-immigration stance, including forcibly sending busloads of migrants to liberal sanctuary cities and to then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ home at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington.
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