By Rich Matthews and Aaron McNicholas
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minnesota, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. immigration officials have detained at least four children, including a five-year-old, from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, according to school officials and a lawyer for the family, who challenged the government narrative of the five-year-old’s detention put forward by Vice President JD Vance.
The Ecuadorean boy and his father – both in the country legally as asylum applicants – were whisked off to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, said Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family who is attempting to gain their release.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, told a press conference that armed and masked ICE officers had apprehended four students as of this week, listing two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos.
“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids,” Stenvik said.
“The onslaught of ice activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children.”
The detentions form part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has deployed about 3,000 federal law enforcement officers to the Minneapolis area, where people have been on edge since an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, 37, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, on January 7.
Heavily armed federal officers have pursued suspects they say are dangerous criminals and immigration violators, while protesters unnerved by the show of force have responded with their own observer patrols, blowing whistles to warn people of ICE raids while voicing displeasure with Trump’s escalation.
The Department of Homeland Security said Liam’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide details.
SPIDER-MAN BACKPACK
Liam, wearing a blue hat and a Spider-Man backpack, watched as masked agents took his father from the driveway of their home after the two returned from preschool on Tuesday, according to witnesses. Officers then attempted to use the boy as bait to lure his mother out of the house, at least two witnesses said.
Vance told a press conference on Thursday that immigration officers were pursuing Liam’s father, who ran away, leaving officers no choice but to take the abandoned boy.
“What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien?,” Vance told a press conference during a visit to Minneapolis to show support for ICE.
However, school officials, an adult from the family home and neighbors all offered to take the boy, only to be denied by ICE officials, according to witnesses including Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights school board. Granlund said school officials are authorized to take custody of a child in the absence of a parent.
The boy’s mother was inside the home, but her husband instructed her to remain inside, most likely to avoid detention herself, Granlund told reporters. When asked if the boy was being used as bait, Granlund said, “Correct.”
“The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered, and honestly, at the end of the day, children should be in school with their classmates,” Granlund said.
The officers put the child in the back seat of a black SUV and sped away, said Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who also witnessed the events.
“I can’t imagine what was going through Liam’s mind, but I can tell you what I saw on his face. He was frozen and paralyzed,” James told Reuters on Thursday. “He was not crying, but he looked so scared.”
Prokosch denied that Liam’s father was in the U.S. illegally and said Minnesota records did not show any criminal history for the family. They were awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, he said.
(Reporting by Rich Matthews and Aaron McNicholas in Columbia Heights, Minnesota; Additional reporting by Doina Chiucu in Washington and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Daniel Trotta; editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama, Deepa Babington and Michael Perry)
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