Minnesota Prosecutors Are Investigating ICE Agents Who Detained Man in His Underwear in January

There are a few specific images of Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) portentous deployment into the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area this winter (Operation Metro Surge) that became instantly indelible symbols of federal brutality and sheer heartlessness. One might immediately think of poor little Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy held by ICE agents in the cold as bait as they attempted to lure his guardians into detention. Obviously, the mind goes to the caught-on-video federal slayings of Minnesota residents and American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom are still “domestic terrorists” in the official statements of the Department of Homeland Security. But for sheer callousness, it’s hard to beat the image of 56-year-old Saint Paul resident and American citizen ChongLy Scott Thao being detained by agents of ICE, marched out into the snow in 10-degree weather, in his underwear, because federal agents wouldn’t even allow him to put on some pants before parading him into the cold. It’s little wonder that this is the period where Donald Trump’s polling began its descent toward record lows, as ICE’s entire operation in Minnesota produced nothing but one right-wing PR disaster after another, proving the old adage that Republicans love ICE until they have to actually watch ICE in operation.

There were more than ten agents directly involved in this crime against ChongLy Thao who had his door broken down by agents entering with guns drawn via video of the raid posted online.

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— maureen (@maureenf.bsky.social) Apr 13, 2026 at 2:32 PM

Months later, it’s also looking more likely that the infamous photo of ChongLy Thao at the worst moment of his life will likewise result in prosecution against the ICE agents involved. Despite the difficulty and high legal hurdle of states attempting to bring prosecution against federal agents, a local Minnesota prosecutor this week confirmed that his department is investigating the case of ChongLy Thao’s Jan. 18, 2026 detention specifically, weighing bringing charges against the ICE agents responsible. Said charges could include kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment, according to The Associated Press. John J. Choi, the elected prosecutor of Ramsey County, said his office had formally put in requests for information from DHS, including the identities of the agents who detained Thao. The neighboring Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, is already suing the Trump administration to gain access to more evidence related to the killings of Good and Pretti, in the hopes of bringing its own charges against federal officers in those cases.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Choi vowed that Ramsey County would not be dismissed by DHS: “We are going to be dogged in our pursuit of the truth. We are not going to let this go.” Choi also added that the county may empanel a grand jury to review evidence in the case of Thao’s detention.

At the time of ChongLy Scott Thao’s detention, it was entirely unclear why more than 10 federal agents had shown up on Jan. 18, broken down the door of his home, and taken him into custody. Thao and his family reported that agents asked him for proof of his identity only after having taken him from the home where said identification would obviously have been kept, and refused to listen to the explanation of his family that Thao was an American citizen or look at documents. The official justification of DHS would eventually be that they were searching for two convicted sex offenders when they came to the house, a rationale that would fall apart spectacularly when it was revealed that at least one of the two people reportedly being sought had already been in custody since 2024. None of these facts stopped agents of ICE from proceeding to detain Thao and drive him around while interrogating him. He was eventually returned back to the home a few hours later, sans apology.

The case served as a litmus test for ICE’s assertion that it could enter any home without a judicial warrant, illustrating for American citizens exactly what this would look like in practice, and how easily your civil rights can be suspended if you have the disadvantage of living in the wrong place (or possess the wrong skin tone). It was also quite simply a showcase for the wanton cruelty and inhumanity of the typical, barely trained agent of ICE, turning what would otherwise have been a non-story about mistaken identity and a brief, wrongful detainment into one registering national headlines. Because truly, just ask yourself: What did the ICE agents involved possibly have to lose in allowing the 56-year-old man they were arresting to put on some fucking pants and a shirt before dragging him out into a notoriously frigid Minnesota winter in January? If their goal was to verify his identity and immigration status, why not obtain his documents at that location, before removing him from it? Why take a person who is not resisting in any way–ChongLy Thao was not charged with a single thing, such as resisting arrest–out of their home in the most humiliating way possible, unless humiliation is the entire goal? What other conclusion is there to draw, other than cruelty being the entire point for an agency that has seemingly gone out of its way to hire sociopaths as field agents?

That’s why the ICE agents involved in the detention of ChongLy Scott Thao will deserve whatever charges are ultimately brought against them, assuming this Minnesota prosecutor is somehow able to skirt the broad protections afforded by the Constitution’s supremacy clause. They displayed a single-minded preference for cruelty that served no valid purpose; a strain of misanthropy that must be stamped out of federal agencies whenever it’s discovered, rather than allowed to fester or actively cultivated. With public sentiment having swung sharply against ICE, the prosecution of individual agents for cases of this nature, or cases of violence (and rampant falsehoods) like the Minnesota shooting of Julio Sosa Celis, has become more of a realistic possibility than it was before. Now is the time to press forward and hammer the agency with legal accountability, which could ultimately spare countless other lives down the road. ChongLy Thao’s rights were unquestionably violated, but we can fight to ensure that no other citizen is made to face such degrading treatment from the government that is meant to serve us.

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