Federal immigration agents detained a U.S. citizen at his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant and led him outside in freezing weather wearing only underwear, according to his account, family members and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.
ChongLy “Scott” Thao said agents bashed open his St. Paul home on Sunday and immediately pointed guns at his family. When he was later detained, agents prevented him from retrieving his identification documents and led him outside in subfreezing conditions wearing only underwear, sandals and a blanket.
The detention occurred as federal immigration agents conduct a massive operation in the Twin Cities, which has drawn backlash from residents and local leaders over warrantless arrests, aggressive clashes with protesters, and a fatal shooting.
The case raises questions about whether federal agents are distinguishing between targets and people in their enforcement path, and highlights civil rights concerns that have prompted lawsuits and criminal charges against federal officers.
The detention
Thao told The Associated Press that his daughter-in-law alerted him on Sunday afternoon that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were at the door of his St. Paul residence. He told her not to open it. Masked agents then forced their way in and pointed guns at the family, yelling at them.
“I was shaking,” Thao said. “They didn’t show any warrant; they just broke down the door.”
As agents detained him, Thao asked his daughter-in-law to find his identification. The agents told him they did not want to see it. His 4-year-old grandson watched and cried as Thao was led out in handcuffs wearing only sandals and underwear with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Videos captured the scene, showing neighbors screaming at the dozen gun-toting agents and blowing whistles.
Thao said agents drove him “to the middle of nowhere” and made him exit the car in the freezing weather so they could photograph him. He said he feared they would beat him. Eventually, agents asked for his ID — which they had earlier prevented him from retrieving. After confirming he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, agents brought him back to his house an hour or two later, Thao said. There they made him show his ID and then left without apologizing for detaining him or breaking his door.
Conflicting accounts
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security described the ICE operation at Thao’s home as a “targeted operation” seeking two convicted sex offenders. “The US citizen lives with these two convicted sex offenders at the site of the operation,” DHS said. “The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID’d. He matched the description of the targets.”
Thao’s family categorically disputed the account, issuing a statement that they “strongly object to DHS’s attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims.”
Thao said only he, his son Chris, his daughter-in-law and his grandson live at the rental home. Neither they nor the property owner are listed in the Minnesota sex offender registry. The nearest sex offender listed as living in the zip code is more than two blocks away.
DHS later released the names and photos of two people it described as “violent illegal alien sexual offenders” that it was seeking in St. Paul. Thao said he had never seen these men before and they did not live with him.
Chris Thao said ICE agents stopped him while he was driving to work before they detained his father. He was driving a car borrowed from his cousin’s boyfriend, whose first name matches that of one of the men DHS said it was seeking. Chris Thao said he did not know the boyfriend’s last name.
Family legacy and response
The family said they are particularly upset by ChongLy Thao’s treatment given their history of supporting the United States. Thao’s adopted mother, Choua Thao, had to flee to the U.S. from Laos in the 1970s when communists took over, because she had supported American covert operations in the country and her life was in danger.
Choua Thao was a nurse who treated CIA-backed Hmong soldiers in the U.S. government’s “Secret War” from 1961 to 1975 against the communists, according to the Hmong Nurses Association website. She “treated countless civilians and American soldiers, working closely with U.S. personnel,” her daughter-in-law Louansee Moua wrote on a GoFundMe page for the family. Choua Thao died in late December.
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, a Hmong American, responded to Thao’s detention in a statement about the broader ICE operation in the city. “ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing,” she said. “They’re not going after hardened criminals. They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”
The operation has drawn backlash from residents and local leaders over warrantless arrests, aggressive clashes with protesters, and the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three.
Civil action planned
ChongLy Thao says he is planning to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS and no longer feels secure in his home.
“I don’t feel safe at all,” Thao said. “What did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything?”
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