ICE officer charged over nonfatal shooting of man during Minnesota immigration crackdown & ICE agent criminally charged in Minnesota for pointing gun at drivers, prosecutors say 19MAI & 16APR26

IN spite of the drumpf / trump-vance administration's neo-nazi fascist propaganda campaign not only defending the murders and the civil liberties and human rights violations committed by dhs' "operation metro surge" in Minnesota, Hennepin County and the state are charging ice hsi & cbp gestapo agents for crimes committed on the the residents of the metro Minneapolis - St Paul area. Evidence is showing dhs was not running a law enforcement / immigration enforcement operation. This was and still is a violent action directed not by people qualified to "police" anyone but was and continues to be directed by no class thugs with gang leaders mentality, and this is not just in Minnesota, it is nation wide. These from the Independent.....

 ICE officer charged over nonfatal shooting of man during Minnesota immigration crackdown

This is the second ICE agent to have been charged from the Minnesota immigration crackdown

Hannah Fingerhut & Tim Sullivan

Tuesday 19 May 2026 10:36 BST

An ICE agent was charged in the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man during Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, officials announced on Monday.

Officer Christian Castro is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the incident, but a federal judge later dismissed the charges and federal officials opened an investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about what happened.

A federal officer shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after he and another officer chased a different man to the apartment duplex where the man and Sosa-Celis lived. Moriarty said both Sosa-Celis and the other man were legally in the U.S.

A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Last month, federal authorties charged a different ICE agent with assault after allegedly threatening victims with his firearm.

Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

DHS previously said that lying under oath is a “serious federal offense” and that making false statements could result in an officer being fired or prosecuted.

The city of Minneapolis last month released video of the incident captured from a distance by a city-owned security camera.

The administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of Trump’s national deportation campaign. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, called Operation Metro Surge its largest immigration enforcement operation ever and deemed it a success.

But tensions mounted during the weekslong campaign and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers provoked mass unrest and questions about officers’ conduct.

Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, has been conducting investigations into multiple incidents and filed charges last month against an ICE agent for alleged actions while on duty.

Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have since clashed over which has the authority to investigate and prosecute officers for conduct while on duty. The Trump administration has suggested that Minnesota officials don’t have jurisdiction.

State officials have said they don’t trust the federal government to investigate itself or hold officers accountable.

Hennepin County continues to investigate Good's and Pretti’s killings and sued the administration in March over access to evidence in the two cases, as well as in the case against Sosa-Celis. Although Moriarty hasn't charged anyone in either killing, she has said she's confident her office's investigations will bring transparency, even if not criminal prosecution.

ICE agent criminally charged in Minnesota for pointing gun at drivers, prosecutors say

First-of-its-kind case targets ICE agent who allegedly pointed a gun ‘at the heads of community members’ during Operation Metro Surge

Alex Woodward in New York

Thursday 16 April 2026 18:15 BST

Prosecutors in Minnesota have criminally charged a federal immigration officer with assault in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case following surges of agents into cities under Donald Trump’s administration.

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. faces two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly threatening victims with his firearm, according to a criminal complaint announced by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Thursday.

Morgan is accused of speeding up alongside a victim’s car, pulling out a gun and repeatedly pointing it at people inside during a February incident.

Local law enforcement has issued a warrant for Morgan’s arrest. If convicted, he could face up to 36 months in prison.

The charges mark the first against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer for actions during Operation Metro Surge, which saw hundreds of federal agents deployed to the state for dragnet-like arrests targeting immigrants and protesters. The surge also included the fatal shooting of two Minnesota residents in scenes that sparked outrage throughout the nation.

On February 5, Morgan — behind the wheel of an unmarked rental SUV — was illegally driving on the shoulder of Highway 62 when another car briefly moved into the shoulder to slow him down, according to Moriarty’s office.

When the victim moved back into traffic, Morgan sped up and then matched the pace of the other car, opened his window, and pointed his gun “directly at both victims in the other vehicle while continuing to drive illegally on the shoulder,” her office said.

The charges “reflect an important milestone in our efforts to seek accountability for the harms inflicted on community,” Moriarty said in a statement.

Asked during a press conference whether her office is concerned about potential blowback from the Trump administration, which has resisted efforts from local law enforcement to investigate federal agents who have shot and killed Minnesota residents, Moriarty said it is “not a concern of ours.”

“Our role, by the way, is to hold people accountable if they violate the laws of Minnesota,” she added. “In this particular case, we feel strongly that this agent committed second-degree assault against both of these victims. We have charged the case, and our intent is to hold them accountable.”

The Trump administration has also suggested federal agents possess “absolute immunity” from state-level prosecutions, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, in a statement shared by Homeland Security, has told agents that “no one” — including city and state officials — “can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”

Moriarty told reporters that the administration is “wrong” to believe that agents possess absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Department of Justice could, however, try to remove a state-level case to federal court, where state prosecutors could continue to press a case against the officers.

“The burden is on the agent to show that what they were doing was in the scope of their authority as a federal agent,” Moriarty said.

“Our opinion is that illegally driving on a shoulder, pulling up to a car, and pointing a gun at the heads of two community members ... is well beyond the scope of their authority as federal agents,” she said. “We will litigate that in court.”

The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.

Moriarty’s office is investigating several other violent incidents involving federal officers, though she has accused the administration of “obstructing” efforts to collect evidence.

In this case, her office was able to collect evidence from state and local law enforcement, including Minnesota State Patrol, Minneapolis Police and the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials in Minnesota are separately investigating the arrest of a U.S. citizen after ICE broke into his home at gunpoint and dragged him outside into freezing conditions while he was wearing only boxer shorts and Crocs sandals.

The arrest of 56-year-old ChongLy “Scott” Thao is being reviewed as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment, officials in Ramsey County announced earlier this week.

ICE and Border Patrol agents killed three people in Minneapolis — Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti — within the month of January alone. But more than two months later, the status of those investigations remains unclear.

A lawsuit filed by Minnesota officials last month calls on a federal judge to force the Trump administration to share evidence it collected after the shootings, alleging that Homeland Security and federal law enforcement agencies have stonewalled attempts for information about incidents that triggered national demonstrations against the president’s mass deportation efforts.

In the cases of Good and Pretti, both 37-year-old U.S. citizens, Homeland Security officials insisted that both protesters posed a direct threat to law enforcement officers when they were fatally shot.

In the weeks after their deaths, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan assumed control of Minnesota operations from Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino, who was relieved of his “commander-at-large” duty and sent back to his role in southern California.

Homan announced in February that immigration agents would be winding down operations in the state, which resulted in the arrests of thousands of immigrants and drew dozens of lawsuits alleging illegal use of force and unconstitutional arrests.

TURNS OUT 1 BILLIONAIRE IS WORTH MORE THAN 52 REGULAR PEOPLE PER THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM 19DEZ2024

 

I am against the death penalty, always have been, but I had to post this just to remind people how the rich and powerful actually see us regular people.....

Vigilantes, protectors and killers 10DEZ24

THIS headline should be vigilantes and killers because that is what this story is about, Luigi Mangione and Daniel Penny are not protectors, they are vigilantes and killers and there is nothing to be admired about either of them. This is also a sad commentary about who does and does not receive justice in this country. Brian Thompson's economic and social status guarantees his family will receive justice with the conviction and sentencing of Luigi Mangione. Jordan Neely's economic and social status guaranteed he would not receive justice because it was decided his being was not equal to Daniel Penny's economic and social status. That is the sad reality of the American "justice" system and after 20 JAN 25 it is going to become more unjust.  From the Washington Post......

Vigilantes, protectors and killers

The assumptions surrounding the killing of a healthcare executive are something else to grieve.

December 10, 2024

By Robin Givhan

Robin Givhan is senior critic-at-large writing about politics, race and the arts. A 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism, Givhan has also worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue magazine and the Detroit Free Press.

Before a suspect had been identified, before a motive had been determined, before a five-day manhunt whipped through New York’s Central Park and crossed state lines into Pennsylvania, much of the public made a terrible assumption about the early-morning shooting in Manhattan based solely on the victim and his occupation. Brian Thompson wasn’t merely a 50-year-old grunt in America’s sprawling, infuriating medical system, he was an executive at one of the country’s most powerful insurers, UnitedHealthcare. He wasn’t a low-level guy on the telephone listening to a client complain about a denied claim. And so Thompson represented the often invisible corporate authority that seemed to make life-and-death decisions based on profit margins rather than care and concern.

The person standing on the street by the New York Hilton plotted the attack and pulled the trigger, but many people couldn’t dismiss the soul-crushing ways in which powerful organizations treat individuals. They couldn’t shake off the stories of people bankrupted by a medical crisis. They couldn’t ignore the worry that their best interests are constantly being undermined and their anger over the unfairness of … everything.

That is not an excuse for the alleged actions of Luigi Mangione, the Maryland native who was arrested in an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s and charged with the killing. But it is an explanation for how quickly Thompson’s shooter was viewed by some as an avenger of the little people. When the public learned about the words written on bullet shell casings — “deny,” “defend,” “depose” — they immediately recognized them as the devastating mantra of insurance companies aiming to avoid paying for what customers not only feel that they deserve but also desperately need. Who could ignore the people’s collective rage now?

When Mangione was arrested, New York police noted that in addition to having a ghost gun in his possession, he also had a handwritten document that expressed anger toward “corporate America.” The police announced this as if it was a stunning state of mind: being mad at corporate America. Is there anyone, aside from the billionaires who walk among us, who is delighted with corporate America? Who believes it should have a say in who lives and who suffers needlessly? Is there anyone who wants a big corporation to have even more authority over people’s lives?

There’s so much to grieve in the shooting of Thompson: the loss of life, the pain of his family and friends, the continued fraying of people’s sense of safety. But the assumptions surrounding his killing are something else to mourn. They reflect the distrust and anger connected to virtually every institution in this country that governs, informs, protects and employs. Whether it’s the “deep state,” the fake news or the corporate overlords, all of it is suspect.

That cynicism breeds the belief that salvation will come only through some real-life superhero, a conspiracy-fueling guru or a self-appointed vigilante. The system won’t save us because the system is what’s trying to do us in.

We’ve already seen the fallout from that cynicism. Conspiracy-obsessed men and woman pummeled police officers and climbed the walls of the Capitol in an attempt to overturn an election. A president-elect campaigned and won, in part, on the premise that he alone could save the day. His mere presence in the Oval Office would cause wars to cease and birds to sing.

And juries have declared an acceptance of vigilante justice as the only way to calm a fearful populace when other avenues have failed.

The same day Mangione was arrested, a New York jury found Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran who was charged in the death of Jordan Neely, not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Neely, who struggled with homelessness, mental illness and drugs, was being disruptive on a subway in May 2023 and Penny, perceiving him as a threat to others, placed him in a chokehold. When he released him, Neely was dead. The jury deadlocked on the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, which the prosecution dropped. Neely was a 30-year-old Black man who clearly wrestled with a multitude of demons. Penny was a 26-year-old White man. Was he a vigilante or a protector of his fellow citizens? The jury decided Penny was a protector. Neely’s father declared the system “rigged.”

And indeed, perhaps it was both. It’s no small thing to be underground in a fast-moving train car with someone who seems unstable and unpredictable and is acting out. It’s no surprise that someone dealing with untreated mental illness is vilified and considered a threat; that’s part of our culture. It’s no shock that a sick person goes untreated by a medical system that makes everything so difficult, that makes proper care feel like a matter of financial good fortune or a lucky billing code. This is a country where neighbors are often left little choice but to call the police when someone is mentally struggling when the person really needs is a doctor.

Penny walked out of a New York courtroom and celebrated the verdict with his lawyers. For now, Mangione — whose social media showed him with a big smile and who friends described as optimistic, kind and warm — is a guy in an orange prison uniform who has been denied bail. He’s fighting extradition to New York. He is accused of a terrible offense.

There are no heroes in the shooting of Thompson, just as there were none in the death of Neely. But there’s more than enough guilt.