The 56-year-old American citizen who was wrongfully detained by mass deportation agents and dragged out of his home into the bitter cold in nothing but his underwear, Crocs, and a thin open blanket says he feels “fear, shame and desperation” after the dehumanizing ordeal at the hands of an overreaching federal government, Reuters reports.
ChongLy Thao, a naturalized U.S. citizen who goes by “Scott” and is of Hmong descent, was not even a target of ICE’s operation. In fact, reporting would later reveal that one of the men pursued by the agency is already in prison. Mr. Thao’s family said that they don’t know the individuals that federal agents claimed to be pursuing, nor do these individuals live at the residence. Instead, “it appears Thao was taken half-naked in 10 degree weather simply because he’s Asian,” independent journalist Marisa Kabas reported.
“Shortly after the men busted down Thao’s door, they came out with their supposed target in hand: A short, elderly, half-naked man being marched out of his home,” Kabas reported. “Photos from that moment show his grandson looking out the window, a pacifier in his mouth.” The photo showed Mr. Thao wrapped in a thin, open blanket that he’d grabbed from his grandson after ICE agents cruelly denied him a chance to put on some clothes to shield him from the Minnesota winter. “The highest temperature in Saint Paul on Sunday was 14 degrees Fahrenheit,” Reuters said.
Mr. Thao was eventually released from custody “without explanation or apology,” Reuters continued. “I was praying. I was like, God, please help me, I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “Why do they do this to me? Without my clothes on.”
Today in St. Paul: A house is raided by ICE agents and other law enforcement officers in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, January 18, 2026. REUTERS/Leah Millis
— Leah Millis (@leahmillis.bsky.social) 2026-01-18T20:34:49.435Z
TIME TO STOP THE ‘KAVANAUGH STOPS’
It’s a question that Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh should have to answer himself, after authoring a concurrence in the Supreme Court shadow docket ruling that gives mass deportation agents the green light to racially profile and harass Americans like Mr. Thao. In his concurrence, Kavanaugh insisted that any wrongful targeting of U.S. citizens by ICE would prove nothing more than a mild inconvenience. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”
Mr. Thao isn’t the only recently detained American who might disagree with Kavanaugh’s claim. “A combat-wounded Army veteran says federal immigration agents detained him for about eight hours after he watched an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest from a public sidewalk in south Minneapolis,” KARE 11 reports. William Vermie, “who served in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart, said he was standing on a sidewalk observing agents arresting two people when he says officers began pushing bystanders back.”
The veteran said that when he didn’t move quickly enough, he was detained by multiple agents and was subsequently denied a phone call while in custody. “They did offer bathroom breaks and water breaks, and I did ask for a band-aid and they gave it to me,” Vermie told KARE 11. “But I’d rather have a lawyer than a band-aid when I’m being detained.”
“I have represented people accused of the most horrific crimes,” his attorney told the outlet, “and I have never encountered the type of stonewalling, deliberate stonewalling and delay, that I experienced in trying to see Will.”
ICE detained Purple Heart veteran William Vermie for hours at the Whipple Federal Building.He says he’s speaking out because he’s white, he has privilege and if he doesn’t use it to stand up for others, who will?That is what solidarity looks like.
— Jennifer C (@thejenniwren.teamlh.social) 2026-01-20T14:47:15.415Z
MAKING AMERICA WEAKER, POORER, LESS SAFE
“One year into his second term, it’s crystal clear that Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda is making America weaker, poorer and less safe – from a failing economy to families being torn apart to an assault on our cities and our due process rights,” America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said this week, noting that the administration’s anti-immigrant obsessions have served as the “tip of the spear” for a “broader assault on the rights and civil liberties of all Americans.”
In October, ProPublica said its investigation found more than 170 cases where U.S. citizens were detained at raids and protests. “Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.” Or in the case of Mr. Thao, in the snow while in his underwear.
The attacks against our neighbors and their freedoms regardless of legal immigration status have only worsened since the article’s publishing in the fall. “Fed agent permanently blinds, fractures skull of anti-ICE protester,” the New Republic reported Jan 14. “Woman dragged from car by ICE agents yells ‘I’m disabled’ in chaotic scene in Minneapolis,” The Independent said that same day. On Jan. 7, an ICE agent brutally shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a Minnesota mom of three. “ICE agents have shot at least nine people in their vehicles since September,” Common Dreams reported. Just days after Good’s killing, an ICE agent reportedly invoked the mom and award-winning poet in order to intimidate another observer. “You guys gotta stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian b—— is dead,” the agent said according to MPR News.
“From normalizing the massive domestic deployment of armed and masked federal agents, and in some cases military troops, against the will of American communities; to the targeting and persecution of citizens and non-citizens alike; to the subversion of due process rights and First Amendment protections are just a few examples of the assault on America,” Cárdenas continued. “This administration is engaging in deliberate provocations – relying on the pretext of immigration – that raise the possibility of violence, trample on core democratic traditions and aim to keep our nation needlessly divided.”
The federal government keeps showing us that no one is safe – including Americans who fled here for safety in the first place. Mr. Thao was born in Laos and was brought here by his parents in 1974 when he was just four. “We came here for a purpose, right,” he told Reuters. “To have a bright future. To have a safe place to live. If this is going to turn out to be America, what are we doing here? Why are we here?”
AMERICANS ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST TRUMP’S OVERREACH
But even in the face of these dangers and threats, Americans are showing more courage and bravery than many with much more power and are saying they will keep each other safe. The weekend after Good’s death, Americans took part in more than 1,000 events to demand accountability and justice for their neighbors
“We do not need to accept what is happening in our country and in our own community,” Sister Suzie Armbruster said at a Scranton, Pennsylvania rally. “We stand strong and believe that good people overtake evil. We hold everything in our hearts. We hold all of our brothers and sisters, no matter where they’re from. We hold all of them … those that are living right here in our own community. We remember Renee Good. We remember all those that have been victims of violence, and we know that we can join our hearts and voices in a peaceful way.” Tempe resident Laurie Green told ABC15 Arizona that she was “standing up for my neighbors. I am not happy with what happened in Minneapolis.” The protests are “heartening,” said Phoenix resident Kelly Carmody. “I hope many others show up and share what they think should be done.’”
