ICE detains US citizen in his underwear during ‘targeted operation’ searching for sex offenders in Minnesota
A US citizen was dragged out of his Minnesota home in his underwear by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a search for two sex offenders who allegedly lived at the property.
ChongLy “Scott” Thao, who has no criminal record, was napping when his daughter-in-law woke him up to tell him that ICE agents were banging on the door of their home in St. Paul on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the ICE raid was a “targeted operation” seeking “two convicted sex offenders” at the address.
“The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID’d. He matched the description of the targets,” DHS said.
But Thao told the AP that only he, his son, his daughter-in-law and 4-year-old grandson live at the rental home and neither they nor the property’s owner are listed on Minnesota’s sex offender registry.
The confusion may have been related to Thao’s son, Chris, getting stopped earlier in the day by ICE while driving a car that he borrowed from his cousin’s boyfriend. The boyfriend shares the first name of a separate Asian man convicted of a sex offense, court records show.
Thao said the feds “broke down the door” without showing a warrant, and masked agents with guns forced their way into the house. He asked his daughter-in-law to find his ID while he was being detained, but agents said they didn’t want to see it.
Thao said he was handcuffed, then led outside in the freezing cold wearing just sandals, underwear and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
After being arrested, he was driven “to the middle of nowhere,” before being made to get out of the car in the freezing cold so agents could photograph him, Thao told AP.
When they realized Thao was a US citizen with no criminal record, he was brought back to his house two hours later and made to show his ID, he said.
Thao has been in the US since the 1970s, when his mother, Choua Thao, who worked as a nurse treating CIA-backed soldiers, was forced to flee Laos as the communists took over.
He now plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against DHS, and said he no longer feels able to sleep in his home.
“I don’t feel safe at all. What did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything,” Thao said.
His family also said it “categorically disputes” what it called the “false and misleading claims” from the DHS.
DHS did not respond immediately to requests for comment from The Post.
With Post wires
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St. Paul mayor, a Hmong American, said it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see man taken by immigration agents
MINNEAPOLIS — Kaohly Her took office as the first woman and the first Asian American mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, the week an immigration officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen who lived nearly 15 miles west of her city.
“Nobody ever comes into an office and within the third day of being in office there’s an ICE shooting,” Her told NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis in an interview Tuesday. “But I also understand that this is the moment in which you are asked to lead, and so you step up and you lead. … I hope I’m rising to the moment.”
Born in Laos, Her is the first person of Hmong ancestry to become the mayor of St. Paul, which is home to the country’s largest urban Hmong population, according to Pew Research. Neighbors in that community raised concerns this week over a rise in immigration raids targeting people of Hmong descent, with outrage growing after the arrest of ChongLy Scott Thao, a naturalized U.S. citizen who is also a Hmong immigrant.
Videos of the incident Sunday show immigration officers breaking down the door to Thao’s home, arresting him and escorting him out in freezing conditions wearing only shorts, a blanket and sandals. Thao, 57, was returned to his home later in the day.
Her recognized Thao when she saw the images. He is her friend Louansee Moua’s brother-in-law. Moua had written a Facebook post decrying what happened to Thao.
“When I saw what she had posted, I called her immediately, and the next morning she and I touched base and talked about what had happened,” Her said. “It was heartbreaking to watch somebody get dragged out of their home.”
“I don’t know how anybody looking at that could ever justify the treatment of another human being that way,” she added.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Monday that Thao’s arrest was part of a targeted operation seeking two sex offenders who lived at his address. On Tuesday, the agency identified two men from Laos and said both are wanted on suspicion of sexual assault. It was unclear Tuesday whether the two men were the targets when officers entered Thao’s home Sunday.
Thao’s family said in a statement Monday that the agency’s account did not reflect their firsthand knowledge of the events or the living situation at the residence.
“The only individuals residing at the home are Mr. Thao, his adult son, his daughter-in-law, and his young grandson. The family does not know the individuals referenced in DHS’s statement,” the family said.
They also said officials did not present a warrant or request ID before he was detained.
‘Going door-to-door’
Her, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Melvin Carter, another Democrat, in November’s election, a month before Minnesota became the site of the largest DHS operation cracking down on immigration, resulting in thousands of arrests and anti-ICE demonstrations.
After 3,000 immigration officers and agents were deployed across the Twin Cities area, Her has heard “firsthand, personal accounts” from her constituents about their encounters with them, she said.
“They are going door to door,” Her said in the interview with KARE. “They’re targeting you by the way that you look and the way that you sound. It’s unbelievable to me that that’s how we are looking at executing our operations at the highest level of this country.”
“I think a lot of people want to believe that we are exaggerating what we’re experiencing here, but that’s just not true,” Her added.
McLaughlin of DHS told NBC News in an email Wednesday that “allegations that ICE engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.” She said DHS has the legal authority to use “‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests, as allowed under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has already vindicated us on this position.”
“A person’s immigration status makes them a target for enforcement, not their skin color, race or ethnicity,” McLaughlin added.
At a news conference Tuesday, Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino and Marcos Charles, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s executive director of enforcement and removal operations, touted the arrests of more than 3,000 people in the Minneapolis region since December, including “some of the most dangerous offenders.”
At another news conference earlier Tuesday, law enforcement leaders across Minnesota’s metro areas decried the tactics immigration officers used to make those arrests, saying they have stopped people — including an off-duty police officer — based on the color of their skin.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said immigration officers stopped one of his officers while she was driving. The agents demanded her paperwork even though she is a U.S. citizen.
“When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident, the phone was knocked out of her hands, preventing her from recording it,” Bruley said. “The [agents] had their guns drawn during the incident, and the officer became so concerned she was forced to identify herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing and de-escalating the incident.”
After she told them she was a police officer, the ICE agents left without any further questions or comments, he added.
A DHS spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday that the agency “is able to find no record of ICE or Border Patrol stopping and questioning a police officer.”
“Without a name, we cannot verify these claims. We will continue to look into these claims,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Asked to respond to the concerns Minnesota’s law enforcement leaders expressed Tuesday, Bovino said, “Those tactics are born of necessity.”
“What we do is legal, ethical and moral,” he added.
State and city leaders in Minnesota have been at odds with the federal government over the legality of their immigration operations in the region.
The city of St. Paul, alongside Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, sued the federal government last week to stop the deployment of thousands of immigration agents. This week, the Justice Department then subpoenaed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Her, among other state leaders, as it investigates whether state officials conspired to impede law enforcement during the Trump administration’s immigration operations.
“When the federal government weaponizes its power to try to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs, every American should be concerned,” Frey said in a statement Tuesday. “We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that he received a subpoena “for records and documents, not for me personally.”
“Everything about this is highly irregular, especially the fact that this comes shortly after my office sued the Trump Administration to challenge their illegal actions within Minnesota,” he said.
Nicole Acevedo reported from New York City and Maggie Vespa from Minneapolis.
CORRECTION (Jan. 21, 2026 7:51 p.m. ET). A previous version of this article misstated former St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s political affiliation; he is a Democrat, not a Republican.
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Minnesota police chief says ICE stopped off-duty officer at gunpoint
Local authorities in Minnesota say they are increasingly concerned about aggressive tactics used by some Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during Operation Metro Surge, a federal crackdown on illegal immigration.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said one of his officers was recently stopped by ICE agents and asked for immigration papers despite being a U.S. citizen.
“When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork, of which she’s a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork,” Bruley said.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | DOJ vows to press charges after activists disrupt church where Minnesota ICE official is a pastor
The ICE officers had their guns drawn during the encounter, Bruley said. He noted that they eventually left without apologizing after the woman identified herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer.
“If this happens to our officers, it pains me to think of how many community members are falling victim to this every day,” Bruley said. “It has to stop.”
Bruley said he does not blame all ICE officers for incidents like this and stressed that he respects law enforcement broadly. He believes a small number of agents are engaging in inappropriate conduct.
“I don’t think the leaders in Washington, D.C., fully understand what some of their groups are doing on the street and how much damage they’re causing,” Bruley said.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Department of Justice subpoenas Minneapolis Mayor Frey, Minnesota Gov. Walz
Bruley, along with St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, said the behavior of some ICE agents is eroding trust that local law enforcement has worked for years to build within the community.
They said documenting and reporting questionable encounters has been difficult because there doesn’t appear to be a clear point person for the operation and many officers are masked or not easily identifiable.
Despite recent criticism, the Department of Homeland Security has defended the agents involved in Operation Metro Surge.
“In the last 6 weeks, our brave DHS law enforcement have arrested 3,000 criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals. A huge victory for public safety,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on Monday.
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‘Unconstitutional and cruel’: ICE memo allows agents to enter homes without judicial warrant
Andrea Castillo
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Democratic lawmakers and constitutional rights experts expressed outrage after reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had written a memo stating that deportation agents are allowed to enter immigrants’ homes — by force, if necessary — without a judicial arrest warrant.
The internal memo authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter a residence to arrest someone as long as the agents have an administrative warrant with a final deportation order.
Administrative warrants are internal documents issued by immigration authorities and are not signed by judges. Arrest warrants are court orders based on probable cause that a crime has been committed.
Government critics say the memo, first obtained by the Associated Press, represents a reversal of longstanding guidance that aimed to adhere to constitutional limits on government searches. Immigrants have long been advised not to open their doors to agents unless they see a warrant signed by a judge.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committe, demanded an investigation into the new policy, which he said should “appall every American.”
Blumenthal, expressing his concerns in a letter Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, said the guidance constituted a “flagrant disregard for the lawful protections that have safeguarded the American public and our democracy for the last 250 years.”
Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, on Thursday defended the guidance as appropriate and legal.
Read more:Honduran father died in ICE custody in California. His family wants an investigation
WhistleblowerAid.org, an advocacy group, submitted a complaint to the U.S. Senate over the memo’s guidance this week and released a copy of the May 12, 2025, memo. The memo appeared to be signed by Lyons, though his signature could not be independently verified.
The whistleblower group’s complaint was based on information provided by two government officials, who say the policy violates the 4th Amendment’s guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.
The whistleblowers alleged that the memo wasn’t widely distributed, but that some agents were verbally briefed on the contents; others were allowed to see the memo but not keep a copy. New ICE hires are being trained on the memo’s guidance, the whistleblowers said in their complaint.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, responded to the Associated Press report in a statement on X, saying, “In every case that DHS uses an Administrative warrant to enter a residence, an illegal alien has already had their full due process and a final order of removal by a federal immigration judge. The officer also has probable cause.”
Immigration judges are employees of the Justice Department and cannot issue judicial warrants.
An earlier post on X by the Homeland Security account stated that if an immigrant with a final deportation order refuses to leave, “they are a fugitive from justice.”
WhistleblowerAid.org special counsel David Kligerman said no court has found that ICE agents can enter homes without a judicial warrant. He believes the agency kept it hidden because it won’t withstand legal challenges.
“It’s a fundamental 180 degrees from where DHS has been under a lot of administrations,” he said in an interview. “But the guidance has been clear and unwavering: you need a judicial warrant to enter a home, period.”
Kligerman pointed to remarks Thursday by Vance, who said Thursday in Minneapolis that “our understanding is that you can enforce the immigration laws of the country under an administrative order if you have an administrative warrant…That’s our best faith attempt to understand the law.”
Read more:‘Abolish ICE’ messaging is back. Is it any more likely this time?
Vance, appearing to expect a legal challenge to the new policy, added that “if the courts say no, we would follow that law.”
Kligerman said Vance’s comments were troubling, and that he worries the ICE memo is part of a broader push to strip immigrants of their constitutional rights.
The ICE directive comes as the Trump administration has drastically scaled up immigration arrests across the country and sent thousands of officers to cities such as Minneapolis. Tensions there have flared particularly in the wake of the shooting death this month by an ICE agent of 37-year-old Renee Good, a U.S. citizen.
On Sunday, ICE agents broke down the door of naturalized U.S. citizen ChongLy “Scott” Thao, 56, with guns drawn and forced him outside into the snow barely clothed with a blanket covering his shoulders. Homeland Security said the agents were investigating sex offenders at Thao’s address, but they didn’t live there.
The memo states that ICE agents must knock and announce their identity and purpose, then give the residents a reasonable chance to act lawfully, before using “only a necessary and reasonable amount of force to enter the alien’s residence.”
“Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security [DHS] has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose,” the memo says.
Some Democrats reacted swiftly to the memo, using it as justification for voting against a bill to fund the department. The bill passed in the House 220-207 on Thursday, with seven Democrats breaking with their party to vote in favor of it.
Read more:After Renee Nicole Good’s death, bishop warns clergy to prepare for ‘new era of martyrdom’
On X, Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) wrote in response to the Associated Press article that ICE “is so beyond control,” and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) wrote “this is as unconstitutional and cruel as it gets.”
“I do profoundly disagree with their interpretation of the Constitution here,” said Kerry Doyle, who was a top attorney at ICE and Homeland Security under the Biden administration. “To take a legal interpretation that has been the foundation of the law in this area for decades and to turn it on its head like this I think is really problematic, both from a legal perspective but also just from a practical perspective. It isn’t something I would support or would have signed off on personally.”
Marcos Charles, ICE’s executive assistant director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, said during a press briefing Thursday in Minneapolis that agents “don’t break into anybody’s homes. We make entry from either a hot pursuit with a criminal arrest warrant or an administrative arrest warrant.”
Laundry Thief or Sexual Predator: What Would You Do?
Hidden cameras capture reactions as WWYD actor steals underwear, other clothes.
ByABC News
March 16, 2011 — — In the News: Laundry theft is a common problem all over the country — so much so that many universities make it part of their orientation material to warn students to watch out for their laundry.
But laundry theft is not often treated as a serious crime and, because many don’t report it, there are no statistics on the amount of laundry stolen each year. However, one particular type of laundry theft is seen as a serious crime by law enforcement authorities: stealing women’s underwear. It is considered a “gateway” crime — the act of a potential sexual predator. Penalties can be harsh. In one case in Portland, Ore., a convicted panty thief was given 11 years in jail. He’d stolen more than 3,000 pairs of women’s undergarments from laundry rooms near colleges. Some were even labeled with names and dates.
The Scenario: In a busy laundromat, an actor hired by “What Would You Do?” portrays a laundry thief who picks clothes out of dryers as if shopping for nice things. Another actor, playing a customer, asks other customers if they would be kind enough to keep an eye on his dryer while they step out to run an errand. Our “thief” starts taking clothes from the machine the customer has been entrusted with and putting the ones he likes in a basket with all the other clothes he’s taken. Will the laundry thief be confronted? We also run the scenario with a laundry thief who is only interested in women’s underwear.
What They Said:
“I thought he was odd, maybe just an odd guy, taking women’s underwear- yeah could be a weird guy.”
– customer at Laundromat
“I’m gonna call the police. Dump it out and put it back or I’m calling the police!”
– woman at Laundromat confronting underwear thief
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“Sometimes you want to get involved, other times you’re afraid.”
– customer who reported laundry thief- customer describing underwear thief
