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Minnesota's attorney general, Keith Ellison, sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday. Ellison's state wants to force the extradition of an ICE officer charged with shooting and wounding a man in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement surge there in January. NPR's Emma Bowman has that story.
EMMA BOWMAN, BYLINE: ICE officer Christian Castro is accused of firing his gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home during Operation Metro Surge, wounding a man in the leg. Minnesota prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused the victim of attacking an ICE officer before Castro fired his gun. Months later, Officer Castro was arrested in Texas. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, quickly asked Republican Governor Abbott to extradite Castro. That was in early June. Here's Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
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KEITH ELLISON: Yet Castro is still not here to face justice.
BOWMAN: The shooting took place during aggressive federal immigration raids in Minnesota that resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by other officers sparked widespread anger and street protests over ICE's tactics. Ellison's office on Tuesday filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to force Abbott to approve the extradition warrant.
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ELLISON: Christian Castro's not above the law, and Greg Abbott isn't either.
BOWMAN: When asked to comment on the lawsuit at a news conference yesterday, Governor Abbott didn't respond directly. Instead, he made his own set of demands on an entirely different issue. He repeated a claim frequently lodged by other top Republicans that Minnesota officials failed to stop widespread social services fraud in the state.
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GREG ABBOTT: It's time for Minnesota to step up and repay the United States of America and Americans for all the fraud that they've committed in their state under federal programs.
BOWMAN: In an email to NPR, Abbott's office declined to comment further. Mary Moriarty, the attorney for Minnesota's Hennepin County, where the alleged crime occurred, says Abbott is purposefully blocking the extradition.
MARY MORIARTY: We have never heard of anything taking this long because it is an administrative process. It is not supposed to be controversial.
BOWMAN: Texas law limits how long someone can be held in jail without an extradition warrant. That means Castro could be released as soon as next week.
Emma Bowman, NPR News.
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