County Investigates ICE Arrest of Citizen in His Underwear

A Minnesota county is investigating the arrest of a Hmong American man by federal officers that was captured on video as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment, officials announced Monday. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at a news conference they will pursue information from the Department of Homeland Security for their investigation into the arrest of ChongLy "Scott" Thao in January, the AP reports. Ramsey County includes the state capital, St. Paul. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers bashed open the front door of Thao's St. Paul home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions.

No one doubts that Thao is a US citizen, Fletcher said. "There's no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forcibly taken out of his home and driven around," he said, adding, "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?" DHS, which oversees ICE, has refused to cooperate with other state and local investigations into the killings by federal officers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens, in Minneapolis during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation.

Choi said they're trying to determine whether any crimes were committed that they could prosecute under state or federal law. "This is not about, any type of predetermined agenda other than to seek the truth and to investigate the facts," he said. Agents eventually realized Thao was a longtime US citizen with no criminal record, Thao said in January. They returned him to his home after a couple of hours. Homeland Security later said ICE officers had been seeking two convicted sex offenders; Thao told the AP that he had never seen the two men before and that they did not live with him. Videos captured the scene, which included people blowing whistles and horns, and neighbors screaming at more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao's family alone.