A Minnesota county is investigating the arrest of a Hmong-American man by state officials who was caught on video as a possible case of kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment, officials said Monday.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at a press conference that they are following up on information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they need their investigation into the arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, 56, on January 18. Ramsey County includes the state capital of St. Paul.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers knocked on the front door of Thao’s St Paul home at gunpoint — without a warrant until Choi and Fletcher were able to determine — then pulled him out in only his underwear and a blanket in the cold.
“There are many facts that we don’t know yet, but there is one thing that we do know. And that is that Mr. Thao is an American citizen and has been an American citizen. There is no dispute about that,” Fletcher said. “There is no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forced out of his house and chased around.”
The sheriff continued: “Is that good law enforcement, taking American citizens from their home and driving them around, trying to determine what they can tell them?”
DHS, which oversees ICE, has so far refused to cooperate with Ramsey County, or with other federal and local investigations into the killing of two US citizens by government officials in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
