ICE Dragged a US Citizen out of his House, Practically Naked in the Snow

Dragging a near-naked man, who is a US citizen, out of his house into the cold with guns pointed at him should surprise us, but ICE has gotten so rogue that stories like this are almost repetitively in the news cycle now.

VIA NBC News

ChongLy Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized citizen who goes by “Scott,” described to NBC the fear, shame, and guilt he felt when he was dragged into the snow, wearing only shorts and sandals. Snow was falling, he was handcuffed, barely clothed, and then returned home hours later, with neither DHS nor ICE providing an explanation or apology for what had just transpired.

Videos of Thao soon went viral across social media, showing him shivering, half-naked, wrapped in a child’s blanket.

Thao was born in Laos and came to the US as a child in 1974. He became a US citizen in 1991, but at that moment, nothing about his story mattered. As armed officers escorted him out of his home, he feared that he was about to be deported to a country foreign to him, a place where he had no remaining family.

According to Thao and his family, officers did not present a warrant or ask for identification before detaining him. He says he tried to retrieve his ID but was denied the chance to put on more clothes. He complied. He did not resist. His family says he went willingly because he was afraid.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security later claimed officers were investigating two convicted sex offenders allegedly linked to the address, and said a U.S. citizen there refused fingerprinting or facial identification. Thao’s family strongly disputes that account, saying the only people who live in the home are Thao, his adult son, his daughter-in-law, and his young grandson, and that they do not know the individuals referenced by DHS.

After being fingerprinted and photographed inside a vehicle, Thao was eventually returned home. By then, neighbors were already helping repair the door that ICE had broken down.

A federal judge in Minnesota issued an injunction last week blocking some aggressive enforcement tactics, warning they could chill ordinary citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. The Trump administration is appealing that ruling.

This isn’t about one raid gone wrong. It’s about an immigration apparatus that has grown so aggressive and so unaccountable that even U.S. citizenship offers no shield from humiliation, fear, or violence.

When ICE can terrorize a man in his own home, in front of his family, in sub-freezing temperatures, and then face no immediate consequence, we are watching constitutional protections erode in real time. The danger isn’t just that this happened. It’s that it’s becoming normal.