ICE detained a 5-year-old boy coming home from Minnesota preschool, say school officials

He was arriving place from preschool with his dada. The photos present what mn school day officials say happened next.

A five-year-old boy, wearing a blue toque with droopy bunny 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.

"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."

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.

“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."

Liam and his father were being held in a family holding cell in Texas, the family’s lawyer Marc Prokosch said during the news conference, according to The Associated Press.

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 keeps up pressure in Minneapolis as Democrats warn about use of force

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 asserted that last week, a 17-year-old high school student in the district was detained.

Senior Writer & Editor

---

---