The same liberals who love releasing illegal aliens from jail are furious that Texas is about to release an ICE agent from behind bars.

The ICE agent, Christian Castro, was involved in the non-fatal shooting of illegal alien Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during a January 2026 immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis known as Operation Metro Surge.

At 6:50 PM CT, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022.

In an attempt to evade arrest, the subject fled the scene in his vehicle and crashed…

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 15, 2026

He was subsequently charged by Minnesota prosecutors with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime. The prosecutors also issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest.

Castro was arrested days later on May 29 by the Texas Rangers and placed into a Texas jail pending extradition to Minnesota. However, that’s when the complications began.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to sign the rendition warrant needed to extradite Castro to Minnesota. He cited two primary reasons, including his distrust of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“Abbott said he doesn’t trust Walz ‘on anything’ and said he would not consider Minnesota’s ‘demands’ until Walz acknowledged his responsibility for the rampant fraud that has taken place in federal programs in Minnesota,” according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.

The other reason concerned whether Castro genuinely qualifies as “fugitive” since he didn’t technically flee after the January shooting. Rather, ICE reassigned him to Texas.

Months later on Aug. 18, Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit demanding the court force Texas to extradite Castro. Filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the suit was an attempt to prevent Texas from releasing Castro from jail after his 90-day detention limit expired.

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An ICE agent who s∗ot an illegal alien during a raid is sitting in a Texas jail cell, and Minnesota’s attorney general wants him… pic.twitter.com/qP5X7QaHkt

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) August 25, 2026

“Castro is eligible for release from custody as soon as Thursday [the 27th] due to a Texas criminal procedure policy that puts a 90-day limit on the detention of fugitives awaiting extradition,” according to CNN.

The case was then assigned to U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. in the Southern District of Texas.

On Wednesday, he issued a ruling in favor of Texas.

“Rodriguez Jr. ruled that Abbott had not been shown to have refused the extradition request, only that ⁠he had not yet made a decision,” according to U.S. News. “Rodriguez concluded that the law does not require Abbott to turn over a fugitive within a certain time frame.”

“Rodriguez acknowledged the possibility that Castro could attempt to flee the U.S. after his release and ‘impose a hardship on Minnesota’s prosecutorial efforts,’ but found that prospect does not alter his legal conclusions,” the reporting continued.

Ellison responded by releasing a lengthy statement expressing his disagreement with the judge’s ruling.

“Minnesota should never have had to file this lawsuit or this motion,” he said. “Greg Abbott has a black-letter legal and constitutional duty to sign the rendition warrant to return the fugitive Castro to Minnesota — full stop — and we are only here because Abbott is playing with constitutional fire.”

“Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals. But regardless of today’s ruling, Christian Castro will not escape justice in Minnesota,” he added.

Abbott fired back by mocking him with a tweet:

You guys are such bad lawyers.
You showed up unprepared, uninformed & unpersuasive.
You don’t know the law & it showed.

Minn. is the literal definition of a sanctuary state because you refuse to assist in enforcing immigration laws.

I’ll put Minneapolis at the top of the list… https://t.co/RM6obY9hcp

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 27, 2026

“Minn. is the literal definition of a sanctuary state because you refuse to assist in enforcing immigration laws,” the Texas governor bluntly wrote.

“The court was right to reject Governor Walz’s absurd claim,” his press secretary likewise told CNN. “The Constitution requires deliberate consideration of extradition requests and tasks Governor Abbott to ‘decide, upon such evidence as he may deem satisfactory’ whether ‘the person demanded is a fugitive.’”