'Not Doing What They Say They’re Doing': ICE Broke Down Door Without Warrant to Arrest US Citizen in St. Paul

The Trump administration continues to insist it is only arresting violent criminals who are eligible for deportation—despite records showing that nearly three-quarters of people booked into detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months had no criminal convictions.

This week, the arrest of a US citizen in St. Paul, Minnesota by agents who broke down his door offered the latest evidence that, as the city's mayor said, "ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing."

"They’re not going after hardened criminals," Kaohly Her said in a statement in response to her constituent's violent arrest. "They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”

In subfreezing temperatures on Sunday, ICE agents arrived at the home of ChongLy "Scott" Thao without a warrant and banged on the door before forcing their way in and brandishing guns at Thao and his family, including his daughter-in-law and four-year-old grandson.

Thao, who has been a US citizen for decades and whose mother fled Laos in the 1970s, told the AP that he asked his daughter-in-law to find his ID to prove his citizenship as the agents were yelling at and handcuffing him, but the agents said they weren't interested in seeing it.

In a video that was posted on social media, Thao's neighbors were heard blowing whistles and yelling at the agents as they led him outside, wrapped in a blanket and wearing nothing but shorts and sandals in 14°F temperatures.

Thao reported that the agents drove him around for nearly an hour before telling him to get out of the car in "the middle of nowhere" and demanded his ID—which they had prevented him from getting at his house.

The treatment Thao was subjected to, said a spokesperson for the family, Louansee Moua, was "unnecessary, degrading, and deeply traumatizing."

The agents ultimately determined what Thao and his family had been telling them all along—that he was a US citizen with no criminal record—and drove him back home, leaving without apologizing for his wrongful detention or the damage they did to his front door.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also expressed no remorse for erroneously detaining a US citizen and accused Thao of living with "two convicted sex offenders." The claim is not supported by Minnesota's sex offender registry, which shows the nearest convicted sex offender living more than two blocks away from the family. Thao lives with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.

"The family strongly objects to DHS's attempt to publicly justify this conduct with false and misleading claims," said Moua. "These statements have caused additional harm to a family already struggling to recover from a terrifying and unjustified encounter."

Thao told the AP he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS.