A man living in Alabama who claims to have U.S. citizenship was deported to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the country.
But Homeland Security officials told The Independent “there was no mistake,” labeling him a “criminal illegal alien” who was stripped of his green card and merely sought a last-ditch “Hail Mary” attempt to claim citizenship after he had previously been ordered out of the country.
Chanthila Souvannarath, 44, was born in a Thai refugee camp but has lived in the United States since he was an infant. He gained citizenship as a child when his father was naturalized, making him eligible for derivative citizenship under immigration law at the time, according to his attorneys.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Souvannarath on June 18 in Alabama, where he had been living, and moved him to a newly launched detention facility inside Louisiana State Penitentiary, the notorious state prison known as Angola.
On October 23, a federal judge blocked ICE from deporting him while he challenged his arrest and detention, but he was put on a plane for Laos the next day.
“This should shock the nation,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, which is representing Souvannarath in court. “The deportation of an individual with a substantial claim to U.S. citizenship represents a catastrophic failure of the immigration system and a flagrant violation of constitutional rights.”
His legal team is now “exploring all legal options” for his return, according to attorneys with the ACLU, the National Immigration Project and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
The restraining order blocking ICE from deporting him was not served to the agency until after he was already on a plane for Laos, according to Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
Souvannarath was convicted of assault and unlawful possession of a firearm in King County, Washington, in 2004, according to records reviewed by The Independent.
McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent that Souvannarath “had no right to be in this country.”
An immigration court judge ordered his removal in 2006, according to McLaughlin. “20 years later, he tried a Hail Mary attempt to remain in our country by claiming he was a U.S. citizen. I know it’s shocking to the media — but criminal illegal aliens lie all the time,” she said.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences,” McLaughlin added. “Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
But citizens, regardless of criminal history, cannot be deported.
Court records reviewed by The Independent show Souvannarath filed a petition for his release shortly after his June arrest but he did not pay the filing fee before the deadline. That case was dismissed and he refiled October 16.
In her order blocking his removal, Louisiana District Judge Shelly Dick said his “substantial” claim of citizenship means he “cannot be deported or held in immigration detention.”
“He lays out the legal framework for his derivation of citizenship through his naturalized father and demonstrates how each prong of the requirements was met,” she wrote. “This presents serious questions regarding the legality of his detention and imminent deportation.”
The judge noted the “inherent and obvious harm in deporting a U.S. citizen.”
His removal “raises urgent questions about just how many other people, potentially including other U.S. citizens, have been wrongfully deported because our immigration system does not require legal representation of individuals placed behind bars at jails masquerading as ‘immigration detention centers,’” according to the ACLU’s Nora Ahmed.
Homeland Security’s refusal to return Souvannarath from Laos, where he has never lived, echoes other high-profile immigration cases at the center of Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The administration is embroiled in several major cases involving the abrupt removal of immigrants in federal custody despite prior court rulings that prevented their deportation, including the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who government attorneys fought to keep in his native El Salvador despite admitting was deported in error.
Louisiana, which holds thousands of ICE detainees, has been central to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans. ICE runs nine detention centers in the state, with capacity to hold as many as 7,000 people at any given time.
The administration also is seeking to expand deportations to so-called third countries where immigrants have no claim of citizenship or connections. Laos now appears to join several African nations — including Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, South Sudan and Uganda — where immigration officials are sending detainees.
