Minneapolis Video Exposes ICE Lies About Shooting of Venezuelan Migrant

Federal immigration agents lied about shooting a Venezuelan migrant in Minneapolis, and prosecutors who had immediate access to video evidence proving those lies still threw two innocent men in jail for weeks.

Security camera footage released Monday by Minneapolis officials shows what really happened when ICE agents shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis on January 14. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed Sosa-Celis and his roommate Alfredo Aljorna beat an ICE officer "with a shovel or broom" for about three minutes, forcing the agent to fire "a defensive shot to save his life."

That was a lie.

The city-owned security footage tells a completely different story. The video shows Sosa-Celis tossing the shovel aside as the encounter begins—not wielding it as a weapon. An ICE agent then tackles Aljorna outside their home and scuffles with him for just 12 seconds before both migrants escape inside. The agent fires through the front door, wounding Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

Federal Prosecutors Sat on Exonerating Evidence

Here's where this gets even worse: federal prosecutors had access to that video within hours of the shooting, according to The New York Times, which first obtained the footage. They watched ICE agents lie. They had evidence proving those lies. And they charged Sosa-Celis and Aljorna with felonies anyway.

Both men spent weeks behind bars. Their girlfriends were shipped to a detention center in Texas.

It took nearly three weeks for prosecutors to actually watch the video, according to a Justice Department official cited by the Times. When U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen finally moved to drop all charges in mid-February, DHS admitted that "sworn testimony" from two officers appeared to contain "untruthful statements."

Appeared to contain. As if there's any ambiguity when video evidence directly contradicts an officer's sworn statement.

A Pattern of Impunity

This isn't an isolated incident of bad paperwork or miscommunication. This is federal agents lying under oath about shooting someone, and federal prosecutors being so eager to file charges that they couldn't be bothered to watch readily available video evidence before jailing innocent people.

The Justice Department official told the Times that prosecutors "felt urgency to file charges." Urgency to do what, exactly? To back up ICE's false narrative before anyone could fact-check it? To make an example of migrants who dared resist arrest in their own home?

ICE said Monday that federal prosecutors are "actively investigating" the false statements and that the agents involved "may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution." May face consequences. After lying under oath. After their lies sent innocent people to jail and separated families.

Accountability Delayed Is Accountability Denied

Sosa-Celis and Aljorna lost weeks of their lives to federal detention based on lies. Their girlfriends were detained and sent halfway across the country. All of this happened while exonerating video evidence sat unwatched in a prosecutor's file.

The fact that charges were eventually dropped doesn't undo that harm. It doesn't restore the time these families lost. And it doesn't answer the fundamental question: how many other ICE arrests are built on lies that just haven't been caught on camera?

The Minneapolis footage raises serious questions about ICE's credibility in every arrest where there isn't video evidence. If agents are willing to fabricate an assault with a deadly weapon when they know cameras are rolling, what are they willing to say when no one's watching?

Federal immigration enforcement operates with minimal oversight and maximum impunity. Agents know they can lie in sworn statements and face, at most, potential termination. Meanwhile, the people they lie about sit in detention centers, separated from their families, their lives upended by false accusations.

This is what accountability looks like in Trump's immigration enforcement regime: lies exposed only when there's video, charges dropped only after weeks of detention, and consequences for the agents who lied that amount to nothing more than "under investigation."