Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a US citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant,<\/b>
\nSt Paul: 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 onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.
ChongLy \u201cScott\u201d 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.
\u201cI was shaking,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t show any warrant; they just broke down the door.\u201d
Amid a massive surge of federal agents into the Twin Cities, immigration authorities are facing backlash from residents and the local leaders for warrantless arrests, aggressive clashes with protestors and the fatal shooting of mother of three Renee Good.
\u201cICE is not doing what they say they\u2019re doing,\u201d St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, a Hmong American, said in a statement about Thao\u2019s arrest. \u201cThey\u2019re not going after hardened criminals. They\u2019re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.\u201d
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\u2019t 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 neighbours screaming at the more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao\u2019s family alone.
Thao said agents drove him \u201cto the middle of nowhere\u201d 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 realised 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 apologising for detaining him or breaking his door, Thao said.
The US Department of Homeland Security described the ICE operation at Thao\u2019s home as a \u201ctargeted operation\u201d seeking two convicted sex offenders.
\u201cThe US citizen lives with these two convicted sex offenders at the site of the operation,\u201d DHS said. \u201cThe individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID\u2019d. He matched the description of the targets.\u201d
Thao\u2019s family said in a statement that it \u201ccategorically disputes\u201d the DHS account and \u201cstrongly objects to DHS\u2019s attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims.\u201d
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\u2019s 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 Associated Press seeking the identities of the \u201ctwo convicted sex offenders\u201d or why the agency believed they were present in Thao\u2019s home.
Thao\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.
The family said they are particularly upset by ChongLy Thao\u2019s treatment at the hands of the US government because his mother had to flee to the US from Laos when communists took over in the 1970s since she had supported American covert operations in the country and her life was in danger.
Thao\u2019s adopted mother, Choua Thao, was a nurse who treated CIA-backed Hmong soldiers in the US government\u2019s \u201cSecret War\u201d from 1961 to 1975 against the communists, according to the Hmong Nurses Association website.
Choua Thao, who passed away in late December, \u201ctreated countless civilians and American soldiers, working closely with US personnel,\u201d her daughter-in-law Louansee Moua wrote on a GoFundMe page for the family.
ChongLy Thao says he\u2019s planning to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS and no longer feels secure to sleep in his home.
\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe at all,\u201d Thao said. \u201cWhat did I do wrong? I didn\u2019t do anything.\u201d
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