An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been charged by federal prosecutors with lying about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota earlier this year.
The Associated Press, citing an unnamed source, reports that officer Christian Castro, who allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg during January’s Minneapolis crackdown, has been charged with making false statements to federal investigators.
The federal charges come after Castro was released from a Texas jail last week thanks to Republican Governor Greg Abbot’s refusal to sign an extradition order to Minnesota, where Castro faced separate charges of assault and false reporting related to the shooting.
The government tried to claim Sosa-Celis beat an officer with a broom handle and snow shovel but was forced to drop its charges against him after video evidence debunked its case. ProPublica reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice blocked federal prosecutors from bringing more serious civil rights charges, like those brought against the officers who killed George Floyd, against Castro.
The Associated Press reports that no final decision has been made regarding whether further charges will be brought against Castro. It’s a surprising move from the DOJ, considering how much the Trump administration has sought to protect ICE agents from prosecution. The DOJ still has not charged anyone over the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two Minnesotans who were shot and killed by ICE agents as part of “Operation Metro Surge.”
In those cases, it may all be up to Minnesota authorities, who have received evidence from both killings from the federal government. But Minnesota may run into resistance, much like it did in its attempt to prosecute Castro. For now, though, Castro may soon have to go to federal court.
On Thursday, 33 Democrats joined Republicans to pass a law that would take federal funding away from academic institutions involved in any kind of boycott of or divestment from Israel. The legislation passed 237–169.
The Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, headed by Republican Representative Virginia Foxx and Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, strips federal funding from any school that carries out a “nonexpressive commercial boycott” of Israel—like “refusals to deal” with it on a business level. Notably, the bill also applies to boycotts of institutions based in Israeli settlements.
“Thank you @RepJoshG and @virginiafoxx for leading this important bipartisan effort to counter the dangerous BDS [or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] campaign and safeguard academic engagement with Israel,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, celebrated on X after the vote. “This legislation helps protect pro-Israel students from discriminatory boycotts and efforts to deny them the ability to study in Israel or learn from Israeli professors, while fully protecting First Amendment rights.”
This is a boldfaced attempt to make not just political capitulation but financial capitulation to Israel a requirement for federal funding. Eighty percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents have a negative view of Israel, as it continues to bomb Gaza and Lebanon and Israeli settlers terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank.
The bill has many detractors, even in the Democratic Party.
“The bill’s federal requirements raise serious questions about how they would operate in practice, the potential negative effects on institutions, and the extent to which the federal government may condition funding on policies that implicate First Amendment-protected speech,” the House Education and Workforce Committee Democrats wrote in a statement before the vote.
“No matter how strongly I oppose the BDS movement, I also believe that those who engage in BDS have a First Amendment right to do so. The First Amendment right to free speech does not apply only to agreeable speech,” Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler, Congress’s most senior Jewish member, wrote. “No matter how much I may disagree with BDS, and find it strategically stupid and morally repugnant, I will always fight to protect Americans’ right to speech with which I disagree. It is the only way to ensure speech I do agree with is equally protected.”
The bill now heads to the Senate to be voted on when it returns from Labor Day break on September 14.
Here is every Democrat who voted to take funding away from universities that boycott Israel:
