Last week, I called this a "nonsense lawsuit." I was not at all convinced a judge would see it the same way. As it turns out, federal district court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. didn't exactly agree with me, but tossed out Tim Walz' lawsuit to force the extradition of an ICE agent from Texas nonetheless.
Judge Rodriguez didn't actually address jurisdiction. He just ruled that Greg Abbott hadn't abused his discretion to review the extradition request very, very carefully, as the New York Times reports:
The case pitted one of the country’s most prominent Democratic governors against a leading Republican, and it raised a question that federal courts have wrestled with only a handful of times before: How much discretion do governors have over extradition requests from another state?
Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas sided with the Republican, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, finding that Minnesota had not proven that Mr. Abbott had acted inappropriately in waiting to act on the extradition request.
The ruling by Judge Rodriguez, who was appointed by President Trump, means that the immigration agent, Christian Castro, could be released from a Texas jail on Thursday after three months in custody. Texas law limits detention on extradition warrants to 90 days.
Readers will recall that Abbott offered to settle the case and send Castro to Minnesota if Walz coughed up the nine billion dollars that fraudsters stole from federal programs during his tenure in office. Judge Rodriguez didn't bother to address that issue or offer either.
The case does involve serious allegations against Castro, however:
Mr. Castro was accused of shooting and wounding Julio C. Sosa-Celis, the roommate of the migrant who had fled. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed that Mr. Castro had fired a shot in self-defense after enduring a sustained assault that involved a broom and a shovel.
Days after the shooting, Mr. Sosa-Celis and his roommate, who are both from Venezuela, were charged in federal court with assaulting a law enforcement officer. Federal prosecutors dismissed the case in February after investigators determined, based on a video of the encounter, that Mr. Castro had likely lied about the events that led to the shooting.
If prosecutors can prove that case, Castro will face several years in prison. However, the question remains of who gets to prosecute and which venue will hear the case. The incident happened while Castro was on duty as a federal officer, which means that Castro and his defense team can argue that the state of Minnesota and Hennepin County do not have jurisdiction over the case. The defense can demand a removal to federal court and force the case to be handled by the Department of Justice.
That motion would likely have to take place in a Minnesota federal court rather than in Texas, however. Technically, Castro might not have to be present for the removal motion, but even if it succeeds, the federal court in Minnesota would handle it, and Minnesotans would make up the jury pool. In some cases, a removal motion would allow the DoJ to decline prosecution and end the case. This allegation would likely draw interest from federal prosecutors, though, at least to the extent Castro lied to investigators, even if the shooting itself might be defensible. Lying to investigators is a felony on its own (18 USC 1001), and it gets a pretty good workout on a wide variety of cases.
It still might be worth pushing for removal. The sentence for obstructing investigators at the federal level carries a shorter penalty than assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder at the state level, where Hennepin DA Mary Moriarty is just itching to throw the book against Castro as payback for ICE operations in the Twin Cities. The DoJ would at least pursue this case rationally, rather than the politicized prosecutions Moriarty and Walz would likely generate.
So why didn't Judge Rodriguez just order Abbott to send Castro back? Technically, Castro isn't a fugitive. DHS transferred him back to Texas after Operation Metro Surge. Castro doesn't appear to be a flight risk at the moment, and that means that Abbott has the authority to take as much time as he sees fit to review this extradition request. Castro will get out in the meantime, as Texas only allows for a 90-day hold on those targeted by extradition requests, and that time has nearly expired.
In the end, though, Abbott will have to send Castro back. Perhaps by then, the request will come from the US Attorney's office in Minnesota rather than Walz and Moriarty following a successful removal motion, which will put more pressure on Abbott to comply. Abbott will make Walz, Moriarty, and Keith Ellison work for it in the meantime, and make sure the massive fraud allowed under the Walz administration remains a big part of this story.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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