U.S. citizen says ICE removed him from his Minnesota home in his underwear after warrantless search
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/20/chongly-scott-thao-says-ice-removed-him-from-home-in-his-underwear-after-warrantless-search
620 points · 60 comments · view on lemmy.world
60 Comments
DBT@lemmy.world · 137 pts · 199d
This is all about “owning the libs” and nothing else.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 75 pts · 199d
Not even "libs" so much; the Hmong were supporters of the US in Vietnam, and had to flee the country as a result. It's more breaking any potential local support for overseas military action so that the US is universally hated around the world.
ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com · 28 pts · 199d
The best-fit to Trump's actions certainly seem to be to systematically destroy the US's standing in the world. Maybe Putin proposed a trade in exchange for supporting a new fascist regime, but I suspect we'll never really know.
FishFace@piefed.social · 6 pts · 199d
No, the best fit is much simpler. Republicans hate immigration and, to a large extent, hate immigrants. That means that a huge amount of measures that can be described as "anti-immigration" are popular with his voters. Illegally breaking into the apartments of US citizens, kidnapping them, then releasing them an hour or two later is obviously not "anti-immigration" but there are three caveats:
The first two combine with the fact that anti-immigrant Republicans generally don't care about human rights to mean that the negative side (violation of human rights) doesn't matter to them and the positive side (from their point of view - fewer immigrants) results in approval.
When it comes to international relations things are different; there IMO it's largely about Trump's ego.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 199d
Asking "What would Putin do?" explains pretty much everything out of this regime.
Destabilize daily life? Install Russian-friendly authoritarian order? Break all international alliances? Slow trade and destabilize markets with insane tariffs? Have all world leaders constantly in reaction-mode to whatever faux or real crisis the orange turnip has created today, distracting them all with the latest text of "Squirrel!" to Truth Social, squandering their resources and attention in the constant churn of political drama? Pitting neighbor against neighbor and pissing off even the most stable, long-held alliances? Ensuring that the US military is under thoroughly incompetent leadership and possibly about to be tasked with shooting at its own countrymen? Doing shit out of fucking nowhere that threatens WWIII with absolutely zero provocation?
Well, if Putin could control a US president, what would Putin do?
And there it is.
When it comes down to it there's not much at all that the orange shitheel has done that does not also serve Putin very directly, in ways large and small.
cv_octavio@piefed.ca · 9 pts · 199d
lobut@lemmy.ca · 23 pts · 199d
Yeah, if these tactics were used on the January 6 supporters we'd have Fox News and people screaming about the constitution and amendments and freedom. The Joe Slowgan would spend weeks talking about how creepy this all is and go slippery slope.
Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca · 91 pts · 199d
Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a U.S. citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.
ChongLy “Scott” Thao told the AP that his daughter-in-law woke him up from a nap Sunday afternoon and said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were banging at the door of his residence in St. Paul. He told her not to open it. Masked agents then forced their way in and pointed guns at the family, yelling at them, Thao recalled.
“I was shaking," he said. “They didn't show any warrant; they just broke down the door."
Amid a massive surge of federal agents into the Twin Cities, immigration authorities are facing backlash from residents and the local leaders for warrantless arrests, aggressive clashes with protestors and the fatal shooting of mother of three Renee Good.
“ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing,” St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, a Hmong American, said in a statement about Thao's arrest. “They’re not going after hardened criminals. They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”
Encounter caught on video Thao, who has been a U.S. citizen for decades, said that as he was being detained he asked his daughter-in-law to find his identification but the agents told him they didn’t want to see it.
Instead, as his 4-year-old grandson watched and cried, Thao was led out in handcuffs wearing only sandals and underwear with just a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
Videos captured the scene, which included people blowing whistles and horns and neighbors screaming at the more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao's family alone.
Thao said agents drove him “to the middle of nowhere" and made him get out of the car in the frigid weather so they could photograph him. He said he feared they would beat him. He was asked for his ID, which agents earlier prevented him from retrieving.
Agents eventually realized that he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, Thao said, and an hour or two later, they brought him back to his house. There they made him show his ID and then left without apologizing for detaining him or breaking his door, Thao said.
jof@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 199d
Realistically in this situation are you legally justified in shooting if they barge into your home without a warrant? Save you survive the wall of gunfire they will inevitably deliver, will you have legs in court to stand on or are you fucked regardless for engaging with federal authorities?
(Let’s assume a state that has castle doctrine)
silence7@slrpnk.net · 64 pts · 199d
Juries are refusing to convict for more minor things right now, so you stand a decent chance at a not guilty verdict.
Problem is that ICE wildly outnumbers the typical household when they show up, so you are not likely to survive
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 199d
Is it time to mine our front yards and claymore the front door?
Perhaps I should mount a small cannon at the top of the stairs loaded with grapeshot.
Feel like shit about the neighbors dog.
tate@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 199d
Even against a legit bad actor, lethal booby traps are illegal. To have a "castle doctrine" type defense you have to knowingly assess the threat and take action. It can't be automated.
frog_brawler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 198d
grue@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 199d
If America still had a functioning legal system, yes.
In the new reality of fascist dictatorship, no.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 199d
In some states, it's explicitly legal to shoot a cop if they break in due to mistaken identity...
Not just breaking into your home, if ICE tried to snatch a US citizen out of a vehicle in Indiana, the US citizen is legal allowed to us violence up to and including shooting them to death.
Obviously tho, ICE would murder the citizen for it immediately, but technically the citizen wouldn't have broken any law.
https://www.police1.com/legal/articles/the-castle-doctrine-and-indianas-controversial-new-law-FRxbimuYLTKSgBFB/
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 199d
I think we're a little ways past what is legal or illegal.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 199d
And yet people around here still wanna act all high and mighty with their "peaceful protests."
They are not being peaceful. They are not respecting literally anything. They are doing their absolute best to be the worst.
We should absolutely be "stopping" to their level and bringing guns, explosives, tear gas, all kinds of weapons to these protests and our own homes. We need to get this fucking shit started or else there won't be anyone to start it.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
Peaceful protest is what got the National Guard out of LA, Portland, and Chicago.
Not just protest, SPECIFICALLY peaceful protest is what made the judges declare sending the NG an unlawful order.
Yes, they are doing their absolute best to be the worst. That's the point: to incite us to riot. And it takes far more strength on a personal level to refrain than it does to run out and fight in a blind rage.
When people like you start trying to get others to fight -- because let's be real, you're not doing it yourself, you just want someone else in Minnesota to bleed for you -- all you're telling me is that you WANT the National Guard to be sent in, you WANT to empower these insane, unconstitutional and illegal orders, you WANT an end to democracy and a fresh new start with martial law. In other words, you WANT to install and keep this fascist regime forever.
That, or you're just uneducated. But now you know.
RustyShackleford@programming.dev · 0 pts · 199d
Zahille7@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 199d
Yeah no shit. I fat-fingered it and didn't realize until I hit post.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 198d
Legally justified and having your family executed for your actions are not mutually exclusive.
jof@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 198d
So you should just not try to defend yourself or your family, simply for the fact that they’re the authorities. Got it.
grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one · 10 pts · 199d
“ICE is not doing what they say they’re doing,” St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, a Hmong American, said in a statement about Thao's arrest. “They’re not going after hardened criminals. They’re going after anyone and everyone in their path. It is unacceptable and un-American.”
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 199d
If only anyone had warned us this would happen
FireRetardant@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 199d
Oh it is American, its just that treatment is extending to more and more Americans each day that would have otherwise been shielded from it due to their class or race.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 199d
They keep stooping to new lows...
errer@lemmy.world · 61 pts · 199d
Gestapo fucks. ICE has a special spot in hell waiting for them.
carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 199d
"US citizen says?" There's no he said she said here. Shit was caught on video
BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz · 30 pts · 199d
ICE Kidnapped a NAKED MAN? Good Thing we do Thorough and Deep BACKGROUND CHECKS on ALL ICE Agents and don't just Give any old Criminal a Gun and Federal Immunity! Otherwise this would be REALLY SKETCHY AND BAD that UNKNOWN ARMED ASSAILANTS are Kidnapping Naked Americans!
silence7@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 199d
The problem is not background checks or training; its that ICE and the Border Patrol see their mission as being to brutalize minorities. The whole agencies can't be fixed, and need to go.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 199d
It's both. They very likely do not have an accurate accounting of who is employed by them.
frog_brawler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
lemonhead2@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 199d
are they choosing people from voter lists?
silence7@slrpnk.net · 30 pts · 199d
I don't know how he was chosen, but ICE is asking people at gunpoint which houses their Asian neighbors live in.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 199d
There's zero downside to them snatching up and detaining American citizens. They probably blew thru all of their good intel and are now simply going after anyone that doesn't "look" American in the hopes they're actually undocumented.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 22 pts · 199d
Yeah, they apparently get a bonus for each kidnapping, irrespective of whether they have to subsequently release the person
Fredselfish@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 199d
Probably only way to get that sign on bonus that is promised for joining. Hell they probably get shit pay unless they are doing evil shit.
FireRetardant@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 199d
Answer by sending them to the most well armed house on the street.
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 199d
and maga
Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 198d
Yeah, but that's likely a death sentence for that neighbor, regardless of how well they're armed.
FireRetardant@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 198d
Its likely a death sentence for anyone they visit.
RustyShackleford@programming.dev · 17 pts · 199d
Are there any cases of people successfully suing the Justice Department or ICE for wrongful detention and violation of constitutional rights as a U.S. citizen?
Edit: Never mind. Found some examples.
USSEthernet@startrek.website · 16 pts · 199d
frog_brawler@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 199d
LouNeko@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 199d
At this point, if a home security system came with a set of claymore mines it would make product of the year. Strap a few of those bad bois to your front door and see how quickly the badass guys with big guns turn into little boys with pieces of paper.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 11 pts · 199d
The risk that you blow up a neighbor knocking on your front door, or a firefighter trying to get in and rescue you makes this not worthwhile.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 199d
Wire it to some sort of panic button, don't make it automatic.
Recognize the person at the door? Don't push it. ICE comes knocking? Say goodbye.
Steve@startrek.website · 2 pts · 199d
Times have changed…
frog_brawler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 199d
Deploy solicitors! Go forth and bring this man some riches on the backs of stupid proud boy mall-cops!
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 199d
Unfortunately it's extremely hard to sue the federal government in normal times. Right now it'd be damn near impossible considering the department of justice is being openly corrupt.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 199d
jpreston2005@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 199d
At this point I'm just happy they gave him back 🙃
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 199d
I don't know the linked news source, but this same story is reflected in other news sources. Here's NBC
silence7@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 199d
Its Minnesota Public Radio, running an Associated Press report. Fairly reliable as things go
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
I took the extra step of verifying the same story from other sources, and added a link here to increase your original article's credibility for the important story you posted about the ICE home invasion. I don't want others reading your post and questioning if this home invasion by ICE is actually happening.
Nowhere on the adblocked/scriptblocked article page or front page of that site communicates its Minnesota Public Radio. Maybe it would show that with adblock or script block turned off, but visibly questionable sites are the exact ones that should not have those protections turned off.
Just because a site claims an AP report doesn't mean it is. There's a lemmy poster that created a "satire" community that generates fake stories. The lemmy poster that creates these fake stories also claimed to be posting AP News articles. When challenged, they went back and edited the fake stories to also include fake (but reasonably sounding) news organizations.
mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 199d
It says © 2026 Minnesota Public Radio. All rights reserved. Right at the bottom of the page, how is that not communicated?
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 199d
Here is the bottom of the page I see:
My guess is that the copyright notice you're seeing is via a javascript function. As I said in my post:
"Nowhere on the adblocked/scriptblocked article page or front page of that site communicates its Minnesota Public Radio."
mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 199d
It’s in the footer html, nothing JavaScript about it. If your Adblock is blocking regular footer divs that’s on your Adblock setup not mpr nor it’s JavaScript.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 199d
I didn't say it was on mpr. I gave full transparency it was my setup, and not the source site. I fully agree its my adblock. From the second post I've made in this thread, I've said the same thing and explained why I gave a confirming source. What I have works for me.
frongt@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 199d
It says "Minnesota Public Radio" at the bottom of every page.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 199d
Thanks Kavanaugh and the Trump goons of the Supreme Court.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 198d
Warrantless search. Sounds un-Constitutional.
What's the punishment for traitors again?
chemicalprophet@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 199d
Yeah, get in line buddy
USSEthernet@startrek.website · 1 pts · 199d
bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 199d
Did anybody call the St Paul police? Were the police already there on site? What is happening to residents when they call the emergency number? Are the dispatchers telling them what to do? This is missing from the news story. Why isn't npr asking these questions? Where are the police?
Why are the police in Minnesota, in this case St. Paul, why are they not doing anything? Couldn't they at least require ICE to produce a warrant, and if the police would put themselves in between ice and these innocent people and ice had to arrest or tried to arrest the Minnesota police that would totally change the game, wouldn't it?
Could you imagine how insane that story would be? It would make the trump administration look really awful to have to justify police officers being arrested by ICE. There's never been a better opportunity for the police to rehabilitate their public image.
At the very least, the police could be there recording what's going on. In this particular case, they could have documented how ice took this guy out to the middle of nowhere and were taking his photos.
Ice would be behaving very differently if the police would get involved and be willing to get arrested, that would be the hero cop. The police unions would get involved and it would totally change the game.
If just one good, hero cop put himself or herself in between ice and an innocent American citizen that police officer would become famous, and they would be known and written about in the history books for bringing America back from the brink of totalitarianism.
Nastybutler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
Lol. How's the weather in your fantasy world?