Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a US citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out into the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by the AP. ChongLy "Scott" Thao told the AP that his daughter-in-law woke him up from a nap Sunday afternoon and said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were banging at the door of his residence in St. Paul. He told her not to open it. Masked agents then forced their way in and pointed guns at the family, yelling at them, Thao recalled. "I was shaking," he said. "They didn't show any warrant; they just broke down the door."
Thao, who has been a US citizen for decades, said that as he was being detained he asked his daughter-in-law to find his identification but the agents told him they didn't want to see it. Instead, as his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried, Thao was led out in handcuffs wearing only sandals and underwear with just a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Videos captured the scene, which included people blowing whistles and horns and neighbors screaming at the more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao's family alone. Thao said agents drove him "to the middle of nowhere" and made him get out of the car in the frigid weather so they could photograph him. He said he feared they would beat him. He was asked for his ID, which agents earlier prevented him from retrieving.
Agents eventually realized that he was a US citizen with no criminal record, Thao said, and an hour or two later, they brought him back to his house. There they made him show his ID and then left without apologizing for detaining him or breaking his door, Thao said. The US 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. DHS did not respond to a request from the AP seeking the identities of the "two convicted sex offenders" or why the agency believed they were present in Thao's home. Thao's son, Chris Thao, said ICE agents stopped him while he was driving to work before they went to detain his father. He said he was driving a car he borrowed from his cousin's boyfriend. Court records show that the boyfriend shares the first name of another Asian man who has been convicted of a sex offense. Chris Thao said the two people are not the same. ChongLy Thao says he's planning to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.
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