BROWNSVILLE, Texas — An ICE officer charged with shooting a Venezuelan man through his own front door walked free from a Texas jail early Thursday after a federal judge declined to force the state to keep holding him — triggering a public feud between Minnesota's attorney general and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over who let him go.

Christian Castro, who took part in "Operation Metro Surge," an ICE sweep in Minneapolis, fired through the closed front door of a north Minneapolis home in January, wounding Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, 24, in the leg. Castro initially told FBI investigators that Sosa-Celis and another man attacked him with a broom handle and a snow shovel and that he fired in self-defense — an account prosecutors say nearby video contradicted, according to Al Jazeera's reporting on the charges. Minnesota charged him with four counts of second-degree assault and a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime, then issued a nationwide warrant in May.

Castro was arrested May 29 in Harlingen, Texas, and held at the Carrizales-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center while Minnesota sought his extradition. Gov. Abbott never signed the rendition warrant, saying he wanted an internal review first — and under Texas law, pre-extradition detention is capped at 90 days. That clock ran out this week.

A judge steps back, a feud steps up

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. denied Minnesota's request for a restraining order to keep Castro locked up, ruling the standoff over Abbott's inaction "does not create an issue ripe for adjudication," according to CBS News Minnesota's account of the ruling. Castro walked out of the Cameron County jail just before 7 a.m. Thursday.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had argued Castro was a flight risk, pointing to jail phone calls in which he allegedly discussed marrying someone in Mexico and buying property there. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty asked bluntly where Castro would be once — or if — extradition is ever ordered. After the ruling, Ellison accused Abbott of "turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals" and said Castro "is a fugitive from justice who still must answer for his crimes in Minnesota."

"YOU GUYS ARE SUCH BAD LAWYERS. YOU SHOWED UP UNPREPARED, UNINFORMED & UNPERSUASIVE."

Abbott fired back at Ellison's legal team directly, and the exchange has since drawn national wire coverage, per NBC News' write-up of the release, as the case becomes a live flashpoint in the broader fight over ICE tactics during immigration raids.

Ellison says Minnesota's criminal case against Castro continues regardless of his release, and the state intends to keep pursuing custody — though no new extradition mechanism has been announced. For now, Castro is a free man in Texas while a Minnesota courtroom waits for him to show up.