Minnesota officers investigating ICE arrest of man in his underwear as kidnapping and false imprisonment | EUROtoday

Officials in Minnesota are investigating the arrest of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers who broke into his residence at gunpoint and dragged him exterior into freezing circumstances whereas he was carrying solely boxer shorts and Crocs sandals.

The Jan. 18 arrest of 56-year-old ChongLy “Scott” Thao is being reviewed as a possible case of kidnapping, housebreaking and false imprisonment, officers in Ramsey County stated Monday.

Video footage captured Immigration and Customs Enforcement breaking down Thao’s residence in St. Paul throughout Donald Trump’s surge of immigration brokers into the state. There was “no legitimate reason” for federal brokers to “forcibly” enter his residence, and his arrest was not supported by any possible trigger, in response to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.

Thao was “taken out in freezing weather in his Crocs and a pair of shorts” and detained for greater than an hour, Choi instructed reporters Monday.

“There are many facts we don’t know yet, but there’s one that we do know, and that is that Mr. Thao is and has been an American citizen,” stated Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. “Is that good law enforcement, to take an American citizen out of their home and drive them around aimlessly, trying to determine what they can tell them?”

Officials have requested info from the Department of Homeland Security, together with the names of the brokers who arrested Thao.

A spokesperson for DHS instructed The Independent that “ICE does not ‘kidnap’ people” and known as the investigation a “political stunt.”

ICE brokers have been seen banging on his door on a Sunday afternoon earlier than forcing their manner inside and yelling at Thao, who’s Hmong-American, and his household, he instructed the Associated Press.

“I was shaking,” he stated. “They didn’t show any warrant; they just broke down the door.”

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who can also be Hmong-American, stated within the wake of his arrest that “ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing.”

“They’re not going after hardened criminals,” she stated in a press release on the time. “They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”

Agents have been looking for two convicted intercourse offenders, Homeland Security stated on the time. The company accused Thao of “living with” them.

“DHS law enforcement officers were executing a warrant,” a spokesperson stated Monday. “Through surveillance and intelligence information, law enforcement concluded sexual predator targets had ties to the property. The U.S. citizen was at [sic] house when the warrant was served. The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID’d. As with any law enforcement agency, it is standard protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement.”

An announcement from Thao’s household “categorically disputes” the company’s account and “strongly objects to DHS’s attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims.”

Thao, his son, daughter-in-law and grandson are the one folks dwelling on the rental property, and neither they nor the property’s proprietor are listed within the Minnesota intercourse offender registry, in response to the household. The nearest intercourse offender listed as dwelling within the ZIP code is greater than two blocks away.

One of the targets was Lue Moua, who was already in jail, in response to the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Moua had been imprisoned on a kidnapping cost since 2024 and was scheduled for launch in January 2027. He was being held on an ICE detainer, and ICE would have recognized the place he was being held, in response to state jail officers.

But officers by no means gave Thao an opportunity to show his id and was as an alternative led out of his residence in handcuffs carrying solely sandals and underwear with a blanket draped round his shoulders.

He was then pushed “to the middle of nowhere” and compelled out of the automobile within the frigid climate so brokers may {photograph} him, in response to Thao.

Officers introduced him residence roughly two hours later, the place he then confirmed them his ID, Thao instructed the Associated Press. They by no means apologized for detaining him or breaking his door, he stated.

Monday’s announcement marks the most recent try from native prosecutors and regulation enforcement companies to research Trump’s Operation Metro Surge, derided as a weeks-long “occupation” and federal “siege” that swept up hundreds of individuals in an immigration enforcement dragnet.

ICE and Border Patrol brokers killed three folks in Minneapolis — Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti — inside the month of January alone. But greater than two months later, the standing of these investigations stays unclear.

A lawsuit filed by Minnesota officers final month calls on a federal choose to drive the Trump administration to share proof it collected after the shootings, alleging that Homeland Security and federal regulation enforcement companies have stonewalled makes an attempt for details about incidents that triggered nationwide demonstrations in opposition to the president’s mass deportation efforts.

In the instances of Good and Pretti, each 37-year-old U.S. residents, Homeland Security officers insisted that each protesters posed a direct risk to regulation enforcement officers once they have been fatally shot.

A separate lawsuit from Minnesota officers urged a court docket to stop DHS from destroying or altering any proof from the scene of Pretti’s killing.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has additionally demanded proof within the killings of Pretti and Good, and the state has launched an internet site to gather proof from the general public.