Images of ChongLy “Scott” Thao spread quickly online as people saw the Hmong American man carried out of his St. Paul, Minnesota, home into the city’s subzero temperatures wearing only a plaid blanket and blue underwear. That arrest is the focus of a county attorney’s kidnapping and burglary investigation into several U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said during a Monday press conference that his office has been receiving reports from Minnesotans about possible illegal actions federal agents exhibited during Operation Metro Surge. Thao’s case is one of several that Choi said his office is either actively pursuing or reviewing on a preliminary basis.
“He was forcibly removed from his home and taken out in freezing weather in his Crocs and a pair of shorts,” Choi said.
Agents did not have a warrant to enter his home, Choi and others said Monday.
Thao’s case involves felonious kidnapping, illegal detainment and false imprisonment, the prosecutor said.
Choi encouraged people to inform his office about federal officers’ actions in St. Paul. Those cases could either be criminal or civil, depending on the allegations.
Ramsey County wouldn’t be the first government to investigate DHS. Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension launched two investigations into the January fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were killed by DHS-affiliated agents. Individually, prosecutors and police departments are investigating DHS agents for driving under the influence, misconduct, and sexual abuse.
DHS did not immediately respond to Straight Arrow News’ request for comment. It told The Associated Press in January that agents were pursuing an investigation into two sex offenders at Thao’s address. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher reviewed images of the possible suspects and couldn’t see how Thao is considered a match.
“No resemblance outside the fact that they were Asians,” Fletcher said.
All incidents predated DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s tenure at the department. The Senate voted 54-45 to confirm him as the next secretary after President Donald Trump fired former Secretary Kristi Noem in March.
Fletcher said that the county is specifically requesting all reports DHS agents made when they detained people who were working that day, and the recordings they took when Thao was detained. He noted that any other attempt to gather information from the federal government has been unsuccessful.
One other active investigation is ongoing, while three cases are in a preliminary process. Choi declined to provide further information on the other cases but said that further accountability on the federal government could include jury trials or civil lawsuits to compel the release of information.
“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents,” Fletcher said. ”There’s qualified immunity for all law enforcement in a lot of different capacities, but seizing a person out of their home who’s an American citizen, they’re not immune from that.”
Naturalized citizen pulled from home in January
Thao told The Associated Press the agents were masked, banging on his front door with guns drawn. He said none of the agents showed a warrant and “broke down the door.”
Former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Reuters in January that Thao “matched the description” of suspects the agency was tracking.
Thao recalled asking his daughter-in-law to find his identification, but agents didn’t ask to see it. He said agents later drove him to an unknown area and forced him out of the car for a photo-op. The agents later asked for his ID, which they denied Thao access to.
He said the agents later realized he had no criminal record and was a U.S. citizen, and brought him back home nearly two hours later. They reviewed his ID back at home and dropped him off without an apology for the ordeal.
“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,” Fletcher rhetorically asked.