Despite a court order blocking his removal, ICE has sent a 44-year-old Louisiana Lockup detainee with a “substantial claim” to American citizenship to Laos, where he is in custody, the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday.
Chanthila Souvannarath, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, received lawful permanent residence in the United States as a baby, Chief Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District Court of Louisiana wrote in an Oct. 23 court decision.
Souvannarath had a “substantial claim” of citizenship, according to Dick. He said that because his father became a naturalized citizen, and because he entered his father’s sole custody at 13, he met the requirements for derivative citizenship and has been a U.S. citizen since childhood, Dick’s order says.
The order says the government is “immediately prohibited from removing” Souvannarath from the United States or from the jurisdiction of the Middle District, which covers the Baton Rouge region.
“This is what happens when you disappear people to notorious, isolated prisons under the guise of ‘civil’ detention – you end up wrongfully deporting individuals with strong claims to U.S. citizenship,” Sarah Gillman, Director of Strategic U.S. Litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, said in a statement.
Souvannarath’s removal comes amid President Donald J. Trump’s push for mass detentions and deportations of immigrants. As part of that push, the administration has been transferring ICE detainees to countries where they were not born.
Last week, PBS reported that the Trump administration had sent immigrants to at least four African countries through the “third country” program —Eswatini, South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda.
Souvannarath has never been to Laos, according to the ACLU.
“ICE just ignored a federal court order and tore yet another family apart,” Alanah Odoms, executive director for the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a release. “This is the deportation of someone who has strong claims to American citizenship. This administration has shown it will ignore the courts, ignore the Constitution and ignore the law to pursue its mass deportation agenda, even if it means destroying the lives of American citizens.”
ICE detained Souvannarath in June and eventually took him to the Louisiana Lockup, a new ICE detention center located inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to Dick’s order. Louisiana Lockup is also known as Camp 57.
On Oct. 16, Souvannarath, who was told he would “be placed on the next flight to Laos,” filed a petition challenging the legality of his detention and demanding his immediate release, court records show. He also filed an emergency motion for a stay of removal, which Dick granted.
The ACLU learned of his removal to Laos on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
Souvannarath, who had been living in Alabama, had a wife and at least two kids living in Washington state, the spokesperson added.
Trump officials and Gov. Jeff Landry have advertised Camp 57 as fit for the “worst of the worst” “criminal illegal aliens.”
Upon its opening, ICE released a list of 51 detainees who the agency said had been convicted of murder, rape or sex offenses against children. Souvannarath was not on that list, and ICE did not immediately questions about the case, including about whether he had a criminal record.
Souvannarath has 2004 convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm and for domestic violence-related second-degree assault in King County, Washington, county records show.
Louisiana, which holds the second-most ICE detainees behind Texas, has become central to the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
ICE has nine regular detention centers in the state, which can hold over 7,000 people at any given time, immigration advocates say.
ICE also has a facility in Alexandria attached to an airport, which has become a hub for deportations.
Between January and August, over 21,000 ICE detainees were shuttled through that facility, the New York Times reported.
