A five-year-old boy, wearing a blue tuque with droopy ears, carrying a Spider-Man backpack, was reportedly apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in his Columbia Heights driveway on Tuesday.
Liam Ramos was essentially used “as bait,” said Columbia Heights Public Schools (CHPS) Superintendent Zena Stenvik in a statement Wednesday.
Liam Ramos is seen reportedly being detained by ICE in Columbia Heights, Minn., outside his home on Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security denies the child was targeted. (Columbia Heights Public Schools)
“Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused,” Stenvik said.
“Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running vehicle, led him to the door, and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a five-year-old as bait.”
Liam and his father are being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Centre in Dilley, Texas, the family’s lawyer Marc Prokosch told CBC News Thursday.
Columbia Heights is a suburb of Minneapolis, where a massive immigration crackdown has seen thousands of officers sent into the Twin Cities.
It’s become a powder keg of protests and aggression ever since an ICE shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, a mother of three.
Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CBC News in a written statement that ICE didn’t target Liam Ramos, but was conducting a “targeted operation” to arrest his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who she described as an “illegal alien from Ecuador.”
“ICE did NOT target a child,” McLaughlin said.
“As agents approached the driver Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot — abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
She added that parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, “or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”
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The statement did not say what happened to Liam after the arrest or where he is now. The Department of Homeland Security has yet to respond to CBC’s requests for that information.
‘Why detain a 5-year-old?’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized Liam’s reported detainment, writing on X Thursday that “this campaign of retribution has got to stop.”
Minnesotans want safety. They want freedom. They want what’s best for our kids. Masked agents snatching preschoolers off the street and sending them to Texas detention centers serves none of those purposes,” he wrote.
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The photos of Liam, which were provided to CBC News by Columbia Heights Public Schools, were taken by “known and confirmed community members who were on site,” school officials said.
Twenty minutes after Liam and his father were taken, an older son in middle school arrived home “to a missing dad, a missing little brother and a terrified mother,” said Stenvik.
“Why detain a five-year-old? You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” she said.
In her statement, Stenvik said the family “is following U.S. legal parameters” and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation.
“I have viewed the legal paperwork with my own eyes,” she said.
ICE’s aggressive actions continue in Minneapolis as Democrats warn of a possible congressional investigation into its use of deadly force. Reports now say federal justice officials are targeting Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis’s mayor for allegedly obstructing agents from doing their jobs.
According to the school district officials, three other children have also recently been detained by ICE.
On Tuesday, a 17-year-old high school student was taken by armed and masked agents while on their way to school, with no parents present, Stenvik said. Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old and her mother were arrested on their way to school, she added.
“By the end of the school day, they were already in a detention centre in Texas, and they are still there,” Stenvik said.
She also said that last week, another 17-year-old high school student in the district was detained.
The statement from Homeland Security doesn’t mention any other children. CBC News has requested information about them, but has not yet received a response. [CBS]
