{"id":582656,"date":"2026-04-14T00:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582656\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:58:19","slug":"minnesota-probes-possible-ice-kidnapping-of-us-citizen-chongly-thao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582656\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota probes possible ICE kidnapping of US citizen ChongLy Thao"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Officials in Ramsey County, Minnesota, on Monday announced a criminal investigation into the arrest of ChongLy Thao<\/a>, a US citizen caught in a viral photo as immigration agents walked him out of his home in freezing weather wearing little more than Crocs, shorts, and a plaid blanket.\n <\/p>\n

\n The January 18 incident, which shocked residents in the Twin Cities area, \u201cinvolves a felonious allegation of kidnapping, illegal detainment, false imprisonment,\u201d Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a news conference.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe believe there was no legitimate legal reason for the federal agents to enter that home, it was not supported by probable cause,\u201d Choi said.\n <\/p>\n

\n A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said \u201cICE does not \u2018kidnap\u2019 people\u201d in a statement to CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is nothing but a political stunt to demonize ICE law enforcement who are facing a 1300% increase in assaults against them as they arrest for the worst of the worst,\u201d the statement read.\n <\/p>\n

\n The county attorney said Thao was forcibly removed from his home in St. Paul and taken out in subfreezing weather while wearing little clothing. He was questioned in the car away from his home for more than an hour, Choi said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Agents eventually realized Thao was a US citizen with no criminal record and returned him to his home after a couple of hours, Thao said in an interview with The Associated Press<\/a> in January.\n <\/p>\n

\n DHS<\/a> had said the ICE officers had been seeking two convicted sex offenders, and were executing a warrant.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Thao told the AP he had never seen the two men before and that they did not live with him. The Minnesota Department of Corrections said one of the two wanted men was still in prison, the AP reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ramsey County officials said Monday \u201cthere is no indication\u201d the agents had a warrant for entry or arrest.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe think we have much of the facts but there\u2019s still more facts that we need,\u201d Choi said, calling on the federal government to share evidence his office has requested.\n <\/p>\n

\n In its Monday statement, the DHS spokesperson said Thao had refused to be \u201cfingerprinted or facially ID\u2019d\u201d and it was \u201cstandard protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n DHS did not address the request for evidence in its statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Thao\u2019s family said in Monday statement to CNN they are aware of the investigation into his \u201cunlawful\u201d detainment.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are cooperating with law enforcement and have faith in the legal process to seek justice for ChongLy Scott Thao and our family,\u201d the statement read.\n <\/p>\n

Officials demand evidence<\/p>\n

\n County officials sent a letter to the federal government \u2013 known as a Touhy request \u2013 demanding any evidence used to justify Thao\u2019s arrest during the operation, including documents, body-worn camera footage and access to interview the federal agents, according to Choi and a copy of the letter shared with CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The letter is only the first step in trying to \u201cseek the truth,\u201d Choi said, noting they could file a lawsuit in federal court to obtain the evidence.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let it go,\u201d the attorney said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said investigators have not been able to identify the federal officers involved in Thao\u2019s arrest. When they attempted to track the federal vehicles at the scene, Fletcher said they found the license plates had been assigned to different vehicles.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are limits on ICE authority, just like there are limits on ours,\u201d the sheriff said. \u201cThere is a federal court system that can provide a check and balance to ICE, but also the state and local authorities have the authority to provide a check and balance to what ICE does.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Thao was detained as protesters clashed with federal agents during Operation Metro Surge<\/a>, the monthslong immigration enforcement crackdown that roiled Minnesota. Choi said multiple people have made reports with his office regarding federal agents\u2019 actions during the operation.\n <\/p>\n

\n A CNN analysis<\/a> of more than two dozen videos of federal agents using less-lethal weapons such as chemical sprays, pepper ball guns and rubber bullets found officers routinely violated both federal and local law enforcement use-of-force policies.\n <\/p>\n

\n DHS has previously said its agents are \u201chighly trained in de-escalation tactics and regularly receive ongoing use-of-force training,\u201d and said the less-lethal weapons were deployed amid a rise in assaults against immigration agents and a \u201ccampaign of violence against our law enforcement.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Ramsey County officials are not the first local authorities to launch investigations into the actions of federal immigration agents.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last month<\/a>, officials in nearby Hennepin County said they are investigating more than a dozen incidents involving federal immigration agents in Minneapolis to determine whether any laws were broken during Operation Metro Surge.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the incidents was a January encounter where top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino<\/a> was seen deploying a chemical agent<\/a> into a crowd of protesters, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The state is also suing the Trump administration for access to evidence relating to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,<\/a> both US citizens, who were fatally shot by agents in separate incidents that were widely caught on camera and spurred more tense protests.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with more information.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Officials in Ramsey County, Minnesota, on Monday announced a criminal investigation into the arrest of ChongLy Thao, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-582656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}