By Maria Alejandra Cardona
SAINT PAUL, Minnesota, Jan 19 (Reuters) – A Minnesota man told Reuters on Monday he felt fear, shame and desperation a day after ICE officers broke down his door with guns drawn, handcuffed him and dragged him into the snow wearing shorts and Crocs.
ChongLy Thao, 56, a naturalized U.S. citizen who goes by the name Scott, was returned home later on Sunday without explanation or apology, he said.
“I was praying. I was like, God, please help me, I didn’t do anything wrong. Why do they do this to me? Without my clothes on,” Thao, a Hmong man born in Laos, told Reuters from his home on Monday, while neighbors were at work fixing the broken door.
Pictures of the incident showing Thao barely clothed and covered in a blanket taken by a Reuters photographer and bystanders spread on social media, further fueling concern that federal law enforcement officers were exceeding their authority as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has seen some 3,000 officers deployed in the Minneapolis area.
A statement published by the family called the incident “unnecessary, degrading, and deeply traumatizing.” The highest temperature in Saint Paul on Sunday was 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius).
The Department of Homeland Security said officers were investigating two convicted sex offenders at the address and that a U.S. citizen living there refused to be fingerprinted or facially identified, so he was detained.
“He matched the description of the targets. As with any law enforcement agency, it is standard protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
‘WHY ARE WE HERE’
DHS published wanted posters for two men targeted in the investigation who were still at large, describing each as a “criminal illegal alien” from Laos who is subject to deportation orders. One of the men in the wanted posters previously lived at the house but moved out, according to relatives close to the situation, who described him as the ex-husband of a member of the Thao family.
A U.S. District Judge in Minnesota on Friday issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from some aggressive tactics that she said would “chill” an ordinary citizen from engaging in constitutionally protected protest.
“That conduct includes the drawing and pointing of weapons; the use of pepper spray and other non-lethal munitions; actual and threatened arrest and detainment of protesters and observers; and other intimidation tactics,” Judge Katherine Menendez wrote.
The Trump administration is appealing her injunction.
Thao said his parents brought him from Laos to the United States in 1974 when he was four-years-old and that he became a U.S. citizen in 1991. During the ordeal, he feared being sent back to Laos, where he has no relatives.
He said he was singing karaoke when there was a loud noise at the door. He and his family hid in a bedroom, where the federal officers found him. Thao said that he was trying to find his ID as officers escorted him out of the house.
Thao was wearing only boxer shorts and Crocs on his feet when officers denied him the chance to put on more clothes, he said. He used a blanket that his four-year-old grandson had been sleeping with on the couch to cover his torso.
After taking his fingerprints and a head shot in the car, officers returned him to his home, Thao said.
“We came here for a purpose, right? … To have a bright future. To have a safe place to live,” he said. “If this is going to turn out to be America, what are we doing here? Why are we here?”
(Reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Saint Paul; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Michael Perry)
