Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Friday that two federal officers appeared to have lied about an incident in Minneapolis last month in which one shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg.
Lyons said the two officers are under investigation by the Justice Department. The announcement came one day after federal prosecutors dropped criminal cases against two immigrants in connection with the Jan. 14 incident. DHS leaders, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have previously defended the officers, saying they fought off an “attempted murder” in which an officer fired in self-defense.
“A joint ICE and Department of Justice (DOJ) review of video evidence revealed that sworn statements provided by two different officers appear to have made untrue statements,” Lyons said in a statement. “Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending a thorough internal investigation… The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements.”
Agents initially said two men – Alfredo Arjona and Julio Sosa Celis – attacked them with brooms and shovels before one of them shot Sosa Celis. But that account was quickly called into question, with prosecutors now saying “newly discovered evidence” contradicts the officer’s account.
Local law enforcement and prosecutors are also investigating the incident. ICE’s reversal comes a day after the White House announced an end to the deployment of additional federal immigration enforcement officers in the Twin Cities, after a judge harshly rebuked the Trump administration for violating the rights of immigration detainees held at a local facility.
It was the latest twist in a harrowing odyssey for the two men initially accused of attacking police officers and several other immigrants who live in the apartment complex where the clashes took place.
The night of the shooting, ICE also detained Aljona’s 19-year-old partner (who arrived in the country as a minor and was initially housed in a humanitarian shelter) and sent her to Texas and then New Mexico for possible deportation. A federal judge in New Mexico found her detention unlawful and ordered her quick release after learning the couple’s one-year-old son had been severely burned and needed emergency surgery.
Federal Judge Paul Magnuson, who presided over Aljona and Sosa’s criminal cases, ordered their release from pretrial detention, only for ICE to pick them up and place them in immigration detention. Magnuson, a Reagan appointee, also ordered ICE not to deport potential witnesses to the incident. Another judge, Patrick Shields, a George W. Bush appointee, also found the detention of the two defendants unlawful and ordered their release.
Prosecutors said in a brief court filing Thursday that an FBI agent who signed an affidavit supporting the charges and testified in court provided an account “based on information provided to the agent” that turned out to be “materially inconsistent” with the newly discovered information.