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Shots fired: Abbott puts Ellison on notice in fight over extradition of ICE agent

August 28, 2026 | | Print Article

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison exchanged fire over the release of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent from jail amid a battle over his extradition to face charges in a non-fatal shooting of an illegal alien in Minneapolis.

The agent, Christian Castro, was released from a Texas jail after a federal judge rejected the state of Minnesota’s emergency request to keep him behind bars. Castro was being held in Cameron County after Minnesota prosecutors issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest and extradition to face charges for the January shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge.

Texas law limits pre-extradition detention to 90 days, with the clock running out for Castro on Thursday.

Even though the governor has yet to decide whether to approve Minnesota’s extradition request, the release of Castro triggered Ellison, who is fuming over the possibility that he will be denied his show trial of an ICE agent, and he slammed Abbott for running a “sanctuary state for violent criminals.”

“Greg Abbott has a black-letter legal and constitutional duty to sign the rendition warrant to return fugitive Christian Castro to Minnesota — full stop. Abbott is playing with constitutional fire,” he wrote.

“By refusing to extradite Castro, Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals. Regardless of today’s ruling, I will keep fighting so that Agent Castro will face justice in Minnesota,” Ellison added.

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The Lone Star State Republican responded to the Muslim Democrat’s fighting words and put Ellison on notice that Minneapolis could be a future destination for busloads of illegal aliens just as New York City was during the Biden regime.

“You guys are such bad lawyers. You showed up unprepared, uninformed & unpersuasive. You don’t know the law & it showed,” Abbott wrote in his response to Ellison. “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 for future bus drop offs if we ever have a President like Joe Biden again,” the Texas governor added, suggesting that Minnesota’s generous social programs would be irresistible to illegal aliens if they were transported there in great numbers.

Shots fired.

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“I’m very disturbed to learn of Christian Castro’s release from a Texas jail today. He is charged with four serious felonies in Minnesota for his actions during Operation Metro Surge and is a fugitive from justice by every definition,” Ellison said in a statement.

“Minnesota quickly and properly submitted an extradition request that Governor Abbott ignored, then offered bogus excuses for not signing that have no basis in law or Supreme Court precedent. In a social media post yesterday, he wasted no time in publicly revealing his political motivations for not signing,” he whined.

Chris Donaldson
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