ICE arrested a 5-year-old boy on his way home from school in Minnesota, school officials said
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He was coming home from kindergarten with his father. Photos show what Minnesota school officials say happened next.
A five-year-old boy, wearing a blue toque and floppy ears, carrying a Spider-Man backpack, was reportedly apprehended by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on his Columbia Heights street on Tuesday.
Liam Ramos was essentially used as “bait,” Columbia Heights Public Schools (CHPS) Superintendent Zena Stenvik said in a statement Wednesday.
“An older person who lives in this house was outside and begged the ambassadors to let them take care of the little child, but he refused,” said Stenvik.
“Instead, the agent took the child out of the car while it was still running, took him to the door, and ordered him to knock on the door, ask to come in, to see if anyone else was at home – in effect using the five-year-old as food.”
Columbia Heights is a suburb of Minneapolis, where a spate of immigrant violence has seen thousands of police officers deployed to the Twin Cities. That’s right have been a hotbed of protests and violence since ICE shot and killed Renee Good, 37, a mother of three.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CBC News in a written statement that ICE had not targeted Liam Ramos, but was conducting an “operation” aimed at arresting his father. Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, whom he described as an “illegal alien from Ecuador.”
“ICE didn’t understand the kid,” McLaughlin said.
“As agents approached the driver, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, he fled on foot – leaving his child behind. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers stayed with the child while other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
He added that parents are asked if they want their children removed, “or ICE will place the children with a safe person of the parent’s choice.”
The statement did not say what happened to Liam after his arrest or where he is now. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to CBC’s requests for that information.
Liam and his father are being held in family custody in Texas, family attorney Marc Prokosch said at a press conference, according to the Associated Press.
‘Why is a five-year-old child locked up?’
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz condemned Liam’s reported arrest, writing in X on Thursday that “this vendetta must stop.”
Minnesotans want safety. They want freedom. They want the best for our children. Masked agents snatching preschoolers off the street and sending them to detention centers in Texas serve no purpose whatsoever,” he wrote.
Minnesotans want safety. They want freedom. They want the best for our children.
Masked agents snatching preschoolers off the street and sending them to Texas detention centers are not helping those goals.
This revenge campaign must stop.https://t.co/DYXvNF0SKa
Photos of Liam Ramos, provided to CBC News by Columbia Heights Public Schools, were taken by. “Known and verified members of the public were present at the site,” school officials said.
Twenty minutes after Liam and his father were taken, the middle school-aged son came home to “a missing father, a missing younger brother and a terrified mother,” it said. Stenvik.
“Why is a five-year-old child locked up? You can’t tell me that this child will be considered a violent criminal,” he said.
In his statement, Stenvik he said the family was “following American legal principles” and had an active case for asylum without a deportation order.
“I have seen the legal documents with my own eyes,” he said.
ICE’s brutal actions continue in Minneapolis as Democrats warn of a possible investigation into its use of deadly force. Reports now say that justice officials are targeting the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis for allegedly obstructing agents from doing their jobs.
According to school district officials, three other children were also recently arrested by ICE.
Tuesday, a 17-year-old high school the student was they were taken by armed and masked people when they were going to school, without their parents, Stenvik said. Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old child and his mother were arrested on their way to school, he added.
“By the end of the school day, they were already in a detention center in Texas, and they’re still there,” Stenvik said.
He also revealed that last week a 17-year-old student was arrested at a high school in the region.
The Homeland Security statement does not mention other children. CBC News has requested information about them, but has yet to receive a response.
