5-year-old boy taken by ICE in Minneapolis area being held with father at Texas facility
CNN
By Priscilla Alvarez, Chris Boyette, Amanda Musa, CNN
(CNN) — A 5-year-old who was taken by federal agents from the driveway of his metro Minneapolis home Tuesday after returning from preschool is being held with his father at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas, according to school district officials and a family attorney.
The preschooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, was removed from the family’s running car, said Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb.
The boy and his family are originally from Ecuador and presented themselves to border officers in Texas in December 2024 to apply for asylum, the family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said during a press conference Thursday evening.
“These are not illegal aliens,” Prokosch said. “They came properly. They came legally, and are pursuing a legal pathway.”
When asked further about their asylum request, Prokosch did not elaborate, noting that asylum plans are confidential.
Ramos is one of the latest children caught up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign in Minnesota and across the country. The campaign has been marked by aggressive tactics by armed, masked agents, the apprehension of US citizens and crackdowns on protesters as battles intensify over the legality of the actions. Residents in targeted areas have responded by warning neighbors and, at times, taking steps to hinder immigration agents’ movements and actions.
“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 at a news conference Wednesday.
An agent “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 5-year-old as bait,” Stenvik said.
“ICE did not, and has never, ‘used a child as bait.’ The child was ABANDONED,” the agency posted on X Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security said the father was the intended target of the operation. The two were eventually taken into custody together.
“We conduct legal, ethical and moral law enforcement missions here in Minneapolis,” Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino said Thursday at a news conference. “… I didn’t detain a 5-year-old, and we’re going to continue with that law enforcement mission.”
The boy’s father does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota, according to Prokosch.
The father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, and his young son are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, an ICE facility for families, Prokosch said.
Federal officials said they took the boy with them after the father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him, according to a social media post from DHS on Thursday.
The agency said the officers “made multiple attempts to get the mother inside the house to take custody of her child. Officers even assured her that they would NOT take her into custody. She refused to accept custody of the child.”
“Our officers primary concern during the entire operation was the safety and welfare of the child,” DHS added. “Following the mother’s abandonment of the child, officers abided by the father’s wishes to keep the child with him. Father and son are together at Dilley.”
Liam’s mother was “terrified” of the agents outside her door, Pastor Sergio Amezcua, who has been helping the mother since her husband and son were taken, told CNN’s Laura Coates Thursday night.
“ICE agents were trying to use the baby to get her to come out of her house, but the neighbors … advised her not to do it,” fearing she would be detained, Amezuca said, noting she is pregnant and also has a teenage son.
In a separate statement Thursday night, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “During this situation, agitators swarmed the scene and began yelling and blowing horns, scaring the child.”
Chair of the Columbia Heights Public School District school board, Mary Granlund, said she was on her way to pick up her kids at school when she saw agents taking the child.
“I heard the commotion and saw the people,” Granlund told CNN Thursday, noting she heard some onlookers saying, “What are you doing, don’t take the child.”
In an earlier statement to CNN, DHS said ICE was conducting an operation to arrest the child’s father when he “fled on foot — abandoning his child.”
During remarks in Minneapolis Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said that after researching the matter, he found officers “went to arrest his illegal alien father. The father ran. So, the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
DHS said the father was released into the US under the Biden administration.
“They have done every single thing the right way that they were supposed to …” Prokosch said at a news conference. “The family is pursuing an asylum claim, which is lawful to do. It’s just that now we have to do it with half of the family in Texas.”
The Dilley facility — intended to be a residential detention center, not a criminal facility — is designed to house families, with a series of beige trailers with dedicated spaces for a library, gym and classroom. Children at Dilley range from infants to teenagers.
Ramos isn’t the only case in the school district about seven miles north of Minneapolis. Three other students have also been taken by ICE, school officials said.
Also on Tuesday, a 17-year-old Columbia Heights High School student on the way to school was taken by armed, masked agents, Stenvik said.
“No parents were present. The student was removed from their car and taken away,” she said.
Last week, ICE agents entered the apartment of another 17-year-old high school student and her mother. Both were detained, the district said.
A 10-year-old fourth grader was taken by ICE agents on her way to school with her mother two weeks ago and now remains in a Texas detention center, the school district said.
CNN has asked DHS for details on these cases.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury contributed to this report.
