Michael Paulsen, professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, co-authored an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune examining Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to extradite an ICE agent facing criminal charges in Minnesota. Paulsen and co-author Sanford Levinson argue that the Constitution requires Abbott to honor Minnesota’s extradition request and explore the potential legal consequences if he continues to refuse.
From the op-ed:
On May 18, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed the five criminal charges against Castro. As noted, Castro was captured by Texas Rangers on May 29, and he has been confined since then in the Cameron County jail, close to the Mexican border. Minnesota’s extradition request has been pending for nearly three months. During that time, Abbott has honored several other extradition requests in other cases from states including from Minnesota.
But he has refused to extradite Castro, imposing the ridiculous, patently indefensible condition that Walz confess certain political sins. It would be as if Minnesota refused to extradite a fugitive from Texas’s criminal justice system because of Texas’s hospitality to AI data centers. That’s not the way that federalism – or, more to the point, Article IV of the Constitution – works. Abbott knows better. He is a trained and experienced lawyer. He was a member of the Texas Supreme Court and the state’s attorney general before becoming governor. He can’t plead ignorance as an excuse for failing to live up to his unequivocal constitutional duty.
Abbott’s refusal to extradite Castro presents a serious and immediate problem as Texas law might require Castro’s release from jail after 90 days – a deadline just a day or two away. If Castro is released and not rendered to Minnesota authorities, it is altogether conceivable that he might simply cross the border into Mexico, where he is believed to have substantial ties and would be beyond the reach of U.S. courts.
Accordingly, Minnesota has sued Abbott in federal court in Texas for an order requiring Abbott to honor his clear duty to obey the Constitution’s Extradition Clause. If Abbott doesn’t obey the Constitution voluntarily, the courts should order him to do so and hold him in contempt if he does not obey. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 25, in federal district court in Brownsville, Texas.
