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Tension around the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has escalated further today after school district officials in the Minneapolis area said federal authorities had detained at least four children after school, including a five-year-old boy.

The Columbia Heights Public Schools district said agents detained Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, along with his father in the family's driveway on Tuesday after the boy was picked up from preschool. Superintendent Zena Stenvik said masked, armed agents had detained a high school student, 17, that same day. Two weeks ago, she said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained two other children — aged 10 and 17 — along with their mothers.

Earlier today, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE did not target the preschooler. She said agents detained Conejo Ramos after his father, the agents' target, ran away and left the boy behind.

Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in Minneapolis today to voice his support for ICE agents.

The vice-president says he wanted to visit business owners, ICE officers and local leaders in Minnesota "to try to understand a little bit better what's going on, so we can tone down the temperature a little bit … but still allow us, as a federal government, to enforce American immigration laws."

Stenvik said yesterday that ICE agents also drove onto a high-school property that day, "with no business being there."

School administrators told them to leave, she said.

"The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered," she said.

What we know so far about the 5-year-old detained by ICE

Five-year-old Liam Ramos was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday during an operation to arrest his father, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. The family’s lawyer said both are now in custody at an ICE detention centre in Dilley, Texas.

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," Stenvik said.

"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.

As they did with the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, local and federal officials have given conflicting accounts of the boy's arrest and ICE tactics around schools. 

In her remarks, Stenvik said ICE agents have been "circling our schools, following our buses, coming into parking lots and taking our kids." 

Homeland Security spokesperson McLaughlin has repeatedly said officers are not targeting schools.

"ICE is not going to schools to arrest children — we are protecting children," read McLaughlin's statement. "If a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a school, or a child sex offender is working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect public safety. But this has not happened."

Columbia Heights Public Schools superintendent Zena Stenvik said Conejo Ramos, wearing a blue tuque with droopy ears and carrying a Spider-Man backpack, was used as "bait" as agents targeted his father this week. 

A photo from the scene shows the boy standing next to a black vehicle, with an adult's hand on the loop of his backpack.

"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."

Tension around the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has escalated further today after school district officials in the Minneapolis area said federal authorities had detained at least four children after school, including a five-year-old boy.

The Columbia Heights Public Schools district said agents detained Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, along with his father in the family's driveway on Tuesday after the boy was picked up from preschool. Superintendent Zena Stenvik said masked, armed agents had detained a high school student, 17, that same day. Two weeks ago, she said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained two other children — aged 10 and 17 — along with their mothers.

Earlier today, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE did not target the preschooler. She said agents detained Conejo Ramos after his father, the agents' target, ran away and left the boy behind.

Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in Minneapolis today to voice his support for ICE agents.

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