Activist Charged With Dumping Garbage On Virginia Property Of ICE's Acting Director

A woman was charged with misdemeanor offenses for dumping garbage on the property of the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a Virginia protest.

The woman, identified as Nancy Nguyen, is the executive director of VietLead, a prominent Vietnamese activist group in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Nguyen was participating in a protest staged on the property of ICE acting director Tony Pham on Sept. 8, when a group of demonstrators dumped trash on his yard and caused "fear to his family," Henrico County police Lieutenant Matt Pecka said in a news release Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Nguyen, 38, was arrested from her Philadelphia home Oct. 7 and was released the following day on her own recognizance. Protesters gathered outside the Philadelphia Police headquarters and greeted her with hugs and cheers after her release, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

VietLead said in a Facebook post Oct. 8 the protest was over Pham's recent appointment as ICE acting director. The organization called the arrest "politically motivated."

"Tony Pham continues to use his refugee narrative to justify his qualifications to lead an institution that continues to enact state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown communities," the post said. "Nancy publicly spoke out in condemnation of Tony Pham and ICE’s guilty conscience as a representative of a broader Vietnamese and Southeast Asian community unified against all forms of state violence."

Nguyen was charged with entering a privately-owned property to interfere with the property rights and dumping trash, Pecka said in the news release. "While protesting is a protected First Amendment activity, doing so on one’s private property is illegal," he said in the release.

Pham, who joined ICE as its head prosecutor legal adviser earlier this year, was named the acting director of the agency in August after the former head Matthew Albence stepped down.