An unusual interstate standoff over an ICE agent accused of lying about an on-duty shooting just broke in Texas' favor. A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Minnesota's attempt to force Gov. Greg Abbott to extradite Christian Castro, opening the door for Castro's release from a Texas jail as early as Thursday under the state's 90-day detention limit, the New York Times reports. Castro is charged in Minneapolis with assault and falsely reporting a crime after prosecutors say he fired through a duplex door in January, wounding a man whose roommate he'd been chasing. He was arrested in Texas in May.
A federal case against the two Venezuelan men originally accused of assaulting Castro was dropped after investigators reviewed video evidence and concluded that the agent's account was false. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's administration sued last week to compel extradition, arguing Castro is a flight risk with apparent plans to move to Mexico. Abbott's team counters that it's still assessing whether Castro is legally a "fugitive," since he left Minnesota on his employer's orders before charges were filed. Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ruled Abbott has discretion to conduct that review and found no bad faith, a move Minnesota's attorney general vows to keep fighting.
Abbott has also cited the federal government's investigation of fraud in Minnesota as a reason not to extradite Castro, the AP reports. Lawyers for Minnesota say extradition requests between the states are normally heeded promptly and they've never seen one handled this way. Abbott's position "would mean that any time a person committed a crime in one state and then left the state because of a job transfer, because of military orders, or even because they were shoved in a van, they could never be extradited to face prosecution," they wrote in a court filing, per the Times.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
