Immigration and Customs agents in Minnesota have detained at least four children from the same school district this month, including a 5-year-old boy who school officials say was used as “bait” to draw family members out of their homes.
“Why detain a 5-year-old? You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights superintendent, told reporters.
The boy has been identified as Liam Conejo Ramos by the Department of Homeland Security. Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained in their driveway on Tuesday, after they’d been returning from Liam’s school, according to a news release from Columbia Heights Public Schools.
The father fled on foot but was detained by ICE agents, along with Liam, who officers then used to find other people in the home.
“Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let him take care of the small child, and was refused,” Stenvik said.
“Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running car, 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 Liam and his family have an “active asylum case” with no deportation orders.
ICE agents then took the father and 5-year-old Liam to a vehicle, where they were likely sent to Texas. The lawyer representing the family, Marc Prokosch, has said he is still not sure of the exact current location of Liam and his father but believes they’re in a family holding cell in Texas based on the experience of other clients he has worked with.
At a press conference, Ella Sullivan, Liam’s teacher in the prekindergarten program was in visible distress at the news he’d been taken, saying: “He’s a bright young student, and he’s so kind and loving, and his classmates miss him, and all I want is for him to be safe and back here.”
The DHS have responded to the incident saying ICE’s policy is to ask parents if they want to be removed with their children, otherwise ICE will place the child with a safe person designated by a parent.
It’s still unclear why ICE agents did not leave Liam in the care of the adult who was reported by school officials to have begged them to leave Liam at his home.
Three other students, all under the age of 18, in the Columbia Heights district have been detained by ICE agents, according to school officials.
Earlier on Tuesday, a 17-year-old student was removed from their care and taken by masked agents believed to be ICE.
Last week, another 17-year-old student and her mother were taken from their apartment after ICE. And the week before that, another 10-year-old student was detained by ICE with her mother, who are both now reported to be in a detention centre in Texas.
This week, an internal ICE memo, dated May 12, has revealed that agents now assume sweeping authority to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant. Advocates say the memo collides with Fourth Amendment protections and goes against years of advice given to immigrant communities.
It’s a shift that’s reshaping enforcement tactics under the Trump administration, which continues to expand a mass deportation campaign nationwide.