Ramsey County investigates federal arrest as possible kidnapping in St. Paul

Listen to this article

In Brief:

• Ramsey County investigating federal agents over wrongful St. Paul arrest.
• Officials say agents may have committed kidnapping, burglary, false imprisonment.
• ChongLy “Scott” Thao detained without warrant, held about an hour.
• Incident tied to broader scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement tactics.

WASHINGTON — Ramsey County is investigating an arrest by federal agents who allegedly broke into a St. Paul home with guns drawn, handcuffed a man and forced him outside in the snow in his underpants and sandals, only to discover they had the wrong man.

Ramsey County officials said in a statement on Monday that federal agents “may have committed the crimes of kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment” in the January incident.

The man mistakenly detained, ChongLy “Scott” Thao, has said the officers had no warrant.

The incident has drawn further scrutiny to how federal agents have operated in the Twin Cities, which have been at the center of debates over law enforcement tactics in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement actions. Ramsey County officials said they were seeking information from the Department of Homeland Security.

County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said in the statement that Thao was handcuffed, removed from his home without consent and driven around and questioned while in custody for about an hour before being returned home.

The two “criminal illegal aliens” whom DHS said it was seeking in that raid turned out to be elsewhere, one of them behind bars in a Minnesota prison serving a four-year sentence.

Asked about the investigation, DHS said in a statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not kidnap people.

It said its law enforcement officers were executing a warrant and concluded through surveillance and intelligence that suspected sexual predators had ties to the property, adding that a U.S. citizen at the house refused to be fingerprinted or identified facially.

DHS added: “As with any law enforcement agency, it is standard protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement.”

Trump earlier this year deployed thousands of armed agents in and around Minneapolis to detain and deport migrants in an operation in which agents fatally shot two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.