The windchill was below-zero when ChongLy Scott Thao, 57, — wearing only boxers and Crocs, with a blanket draped over his shoulders — was handcuffed and ushered outside by federal agents who broke open his door.
The Sunday, Jan. 18 incident in St. Paul, Minnesota, stoked fresh outrage about ICE’s tactics as its agents spread across Minnesota. Thao is a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record in Minnesota.
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who is a family friend of Thao, called the aggressive actions of federal immigration enforcement agents unjustifiable.
The mayor said that she learned what ICE had to say about the incident in a response the Department of Homeland Security provided FOX 9, where DHS said it was looking for sex offenders.
According to an online fundraiser started by Thao’s sister-in-law, Louansee Moua, agents pointed guns at the family while Thao’s 5-year-old grandson was napping on the sofa and “woke up crying in fear, witnessing armed officers storm his home.”
“He was placed into an SUV, and driven around for nearly an hour while being questioned,“ Moua wrote in the fundraiser post. “Only after fingerprinting and running his information did ICE confirm what should have been known from the start — he is a U.S. citizen and had no criminal record. He was dropped back at home with no apology and no explanation.”
ACCORDING to publicly available court records, Thao does not have a criminal history in Minnesota.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Minnesota Star Tribune’s inquiry about the incident.
Thao’s daughter-in-law grabbed a blanket and threw it over him as ICE agents escorted him out of the house, the mayor said.
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 said in a statement that it “categorically disputes” the DHS account and “strongly objects to DHS’s attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims.”
Thao told the AP that only he, his son and daughter-in-law and his grandson live at the rental home. Neither they nor the property’s 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.
