Minnesota's top prosecutor sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, demanding a court force him to sign extradition papers for an ICE agent accused of shooting a Minneapolis man through the front door of an occupied home — and then lying to police about what happened.

Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the lawsuit after Abbott missed a 5 p.m. Monday deadline to act, according to CBS News Minnesota. "Christian Castro has been charged with breaking the law in Minnesota. He must face justice in Minnesota," Ellison said.

A shooting through a front door

The case centers on Jan. 14, when Castro allegedly fired his weapon at the front door of a north Minneapolis home during an ICE operation, striking Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg. The bullet reportedly also lodged in the wall of a child's bedroom, according to NBC News. Castro was charged in May with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, accused of giving officers a false account of the shooting.

Texas Rangers arrested Castro on May 29, and he has sat in the Cameron County jail ever since — roughly three months, and counting down toward a hard deadline. Texas law caps how long a suspect can be held awaiting extradition at 90 days, a window reported to close around Aug. 26.

"IT IS AN ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CONTROVERSIAL."

What makes Abbott's refusal unusual, officials say, is that it isn't how Texas normally handles these requests. The state has approved more than 30 extradition requests from Minnesota over the past five years, including three separate cases Abbott himself signed off on since Castro's arrest, according to CBS News Minnesota. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who's also pushing for extradition, called the lawsuit "completely unnecessary" given that track record, adding that extradition "is an administrative process. It is not supposed to be controversial."

Abbott's office has declined to discuss "pending extradition matters," but the governor has publicly tied his inaction to an unrelated demand: he wants Minnesota to "repay the United States" over alleged fraud in federal programs before he'll act on Castro's case — a link Minnesota officials reject as having nothing to do with the criminal charges Castro is facing.

The standoff has quickly become a flashpoint in the broader fight over how far governors can go to shield federal immigration agents from state prosecution — even when the state doing the prosecuting is the one where the agent was working. Ellison's lawsuit seeks both a permanent order compelling Abbott to sign the extradition warrant and an emergency temporary restraining order to prevent Castro's release before that happens.

A hearing date had not been set as of Wednesday. If a judge sides with Minnesota, Castro would be transferred to face trial on the assault and false-reporting charges; if the clock runs out first, legal experts say Texas could be forced to release him outright.