ICE Batters Down Door, Forces US Citizen into Snow in Underwear
By Reuters | 20 Jan, 2026

ICE agents mistook naturalized US citizen ChangLy Thao for an undocumented migrant suspected of sex offenses and handcuffed him without bothering to check his ID.

This is the moment 56-year-old ChongLy Thao was arrested by ICE at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Officers broke down his door, handcuffed him and dragged him into the snow wearing just shorts and sandals.

Thao, who goes by the name Scott, was returned home later on Sunday without explanation or apology. 

He spoke to Reuters, recounting the fear and shame he felt: 

"My daughter-in-law, came to the room and said, 'Dad, there's ICE out there.' I said, 'okay, just don't open the door.'  So I locked my bedroom, and then suddenly they break in. They just came to the rooms and knock on the doors. So I said, 'okay, let's open the door and see what they want.' And then suddenly there's guns pointed at us. I was like, 'whoa.' And then they go, 'you, come out of here.' I go, 'okay.' And then I came out there, raised my hand up and then they said put my hands on my back, so I did, and then suddenly they just handcuffed me."

Thao said he tried presenting his ID.

"They didn't ask for my ID or anything until after they handcuffed me, and then they asked me, do I have my ID? I go, 'yeah, it's in the room.' And then my daughter-in-law, she tried to get my ID, but they didn't want to see it no more. Yeah, they just took me out there with no clothes on and then just covered with my grandson's blanket. Yeah, they just took me out there and I was like, 'man, this is, this is embarrassing." 

Thao said his parents brought him from Laos to the United States in 1974, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1991.

"I was scared they might send me back, you know, because I have no relatives over there. Yeah, so everybody's over here now, so I'm like, man, they send me there, where am I going to live, what am I gonna do, you know? So, yeah, I just like, man, I was hoping, God would, God would save me or bring me back home."

After officers photographed him and took his fingerprints, he was returned home.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said officers were investigating two convicted sex offenders at the address.

Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said a U.S. citizen living there refused to be fingerprinted or be facially identified and that he matched the description of an offender. 

She added that it's standard protocol to hold all individuals from a house involved in an operation for the safety of the public and law enforcement.

Thao's son Chris says what happened makes him wonder if America is still a good place to be: 

"If this is America, if this is America is what it looks like, why are we here, what are we doing here?"