(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing back against a request to extradite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in custody in Texas, saying he doesn’t trust Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Abbott has been critical of Walz over the past year in response to extensive welfare fraud being investigated and prosecuted in Minnesota.
Walz issued an extradition request in June for ICE officer Christian Castro, who is in custody in Cameron County, Texas. The Texas Rangers arrested him in May after Minnesota prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest. Castro faces four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime after being accused of firing into a Minneapolis home, striking a Venezuelan national’s leg.
Abbott didn’t respond to the extradition request, prompting Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to sue. A lawsuit filed on Tuesday requests a federal judge to require Abbott to sign the extradition warrant. It also asks the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to require Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino not to release Castro until he’s in custody in Minnesota.
“Gov. Abbott’s withholding of the rendition warrant threatens to deprive Minnesota of its constitutional right to Castro’s return,” Ellison’s office said in a statement, The Center Square reported. “Furthermore, because Texas law mandates Castro’s discharge from custody after 90 days, Abbott’s continued refusal to extradite creates a substantial risk that Castro will be released from custody and flee Texas to avoid prosecution in Minnesota.”
At a campaign event in Austin on Tuesday, Abbott said he wasn’t going to comply or respond.
“Well, first of all, I don’t trust Tim Walz on anything, let alone something like this. While they’re making demands, I have a demand of my own: it’s time for Minnesota to step up and repay the United States of America and Americans for all the fraud that they’ve committed in their state through federal programs,” he said. “I will not respond to them at all until they step up and do what’s right and they acknowledge their fault and the fraud that took place and they fully repay the United States of America for the fraud they committed.”
In January, Abbott directed state agencies to investigate the potential misuse of taxpayer money in Texas’ Child Care Services Program after billions of dollars worth of welfare fraud had been perpetrated against 14 Minnesota Medicaid-funded welfare programs, The Center Square reported.
At the time, at least 98 people had been charged, including 85 Somalis. Sixty were previously found guilty resulting from a multi-agency and multi-year federal investigation, The Center Square reported.
Texas Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn filed a bill to make federal benefit fraud a deportable offense, including requiring citizenship revocation, The Center Square reported. The Trump administration began this process last year. The State Department has revoked more than 175,000 visas in 20 months, including for those who committed welfare fraud, The Center Square reported.
Earlier this year, Abbott directed state agencies to investigate potential Medicaid fraud in Texas “given the recent allegations of Medicaid benefits fraud” in Minnesota and other states. He also directed state agencies to assist with federal housing program fraud.
While several state-administered welfare programs in Texas do accept Medicaid funding, Texas does not have Medicaid-funded housing or similar programs that were created in Minnesota. Texas is also one of several Republican-led states that chose not to expand Medicaid provisions.
After the fraud cases broke, Walz dropped his reelection bid for governor.
Minnesota has sent 11 extradition requests to Texas in the last five years, which Abbott has signed, according to the lawsuit.
