Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma
Role at the time: Named by DHS as one of three men present during the January 14 encounter; he held Temporary Protected Status and had no pending immigration-court matters. Statement issued through his legal representative.
Statement summary
After a federal district court found his own immigration detention unlawful and ordered his release, a statement from Jeanette Boerner, director of Adult Representation Services, on behalf of Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma said his "life has been turned upside down by ICE's actions in Minnesota," and that the court's ruling and the dismissal of the charges against his neighbors Sosa-Celis and Aljorna "vindicates the unjustness of his arrest, detention, and the deliberate smearing of his name and broadcasting of his photo," though it "doesn't give him back the weeks he spent in detention."
“Gabriel's life has been turned upside down by ICE's actions in Minnesota. The district court order finding his detention unlawful and ordering his release, along with the decision to dismiss charges against his neighbors, vindicates the unjustness of his arrest, detention, and the deliberate smearing of his name and broadcasting of his photo along with unfounded allegations, but it doesn't give him back the weeks he spent in detention. We look forward to further investigation into this matter and hope that those responsible face consequences.”
Sahan Journal's report, read in full on 2026-09-22, on the dismissal of charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna and its aftermath. It reports that a district court found Hernandez-Ledezma's own immigration detention unlawful and ordered his release, and quotes his attorney's statement; it also quotes Sosa-Celis's attorney Robin Wolpert calling the case "a grave injustice" and "a 180-degree turn." A BCA declaration described Hernandez-Ledezma as one of three key witnesses to the shooting whom state investigators had been unable to interview because he was in immigration detention.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to ICE's conduct toward Hernandez-Ledezma during and after the January 14 encounter, his attorney's statement condemns his detention as unlawful and unjust and calls for accountability. It is recorded on this case because Hernandez-Ledezma was one of the three men DHS's original account named as attacking Castro, and the statement responds directly to that dismissal and to his own detention arising from the same encounter; it targets ICE's broader conduct rather than Castro's shooting specifically.