Federal prosecutors are charging an officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for lying to investigators about a shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota earlier this year.
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The criminal case is not yet public but was confirmed by a person not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.
The charges represent a rare moment of the Justice Department seeking to hold immigration officers accountable.
Christian Castro, the ICE officer, was in north Minneapolis in January as part of a broad immigration crackdown in the state known as Operation Metro Surge. Authorities say he fired his weapon through a closed door and shot Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, in the leg.
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Immigration enforcement officers faced widespread bipartisan criticism for their behavior during that immigration surge, including the killings of two U.S. citizens.
Castro initially claimed under oath that Sosa-Celis attacked him, but surveillance footage contradicted his claim. Castro is separately facing state-level assault charges over the case in Minnesota.
The Hennepin County attorney had sought to extradite him from Texas to Minnesota to face the charges, but a federal judge in Texas last week ruled against Minnesota’s request to keep Castro in jail, pending his extradition.
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