By Sadie Gurman

The Justice Department is investigating whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting last month in Minneapolis, after federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges against two men accused of attacking them, citing new evidence that contradicted the officers' testimony.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a joint probe with the Justice Department after video evidence appeared to show the officers' sworn testimony included "untruthful statements," the agency's acting director Todd Lyons said Friday. The officers have been placed on leave.

"Lying under oath is a serious federal offense," Lyons said.

A day earlier, Daniel Rosen, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Minnesota, asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges against a man who was shot in the leg by one of the officers, and a man who was accused of participating in a brawl in which agents were attacked with a snow shovel and broom. Dismissal with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot charge the men again, "will serve the interests of justice," Rosen wrote in a court filing. A judge on Friday granted the request.

In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 14 shooting in Minneapolis, Trump administration officials quickly cast the men, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna, as violent agitators who ambushed the officers and tried to kill one of them. Tensions were already running high in the city, where thousands of immigration agents had been sent to the city for a massive deportation operation. Officials said both men were Venezuelan and had been living in the U.S. illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said after the shooting that an agent had opened fire because he was in fear for his life. Prosecutors moved ahead with felony charges of assaulting or impeding a federal law enforcement officer.

Justice Department prosecutors have been under intense pressure to quickly build criminal cases against people for assaulting law enforcement officers in cities where the administration's immigration crackdown was met with resistance and protests. Other cases against protesters accused of assaulting or impeding federal officers have also fallen apart.

The crackdown demonstrations it spawned have roiled Rosen's office in Minneapolis, where prosecutors have resigned in waves.

Several of them quit citing disagreement with the way the Trump administration has handled the investigation of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by another ICE agent a week before the Jan. 14 incident. Prosecutors wanted to investigate whether the agent who killed her had violated her civil rights, as is common course after high-profile shootings involving federal law enforcement, but were instead pressured to investigate Good's partner and any connections to groups who had been protesting in the Twin Cities, the Journal reported. Administration officials also painted Good as an agitator who attempted to run over the agent.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether agents who shot another U.S. citizen last month in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, violated his civil rights, a move that came after public outcry. Federal agents initially claimed Pretti "violently resisted" attempts to disarm him until the officers fired "defensive shots," an account later contradicted by video footage of the incident.

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 13, 2026 16:48 ET (21:48 GMT)

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