5-year-old asylum seeker detained as ICE expands enforcement in Minnesota

A 5-year-old boy was taken into custody with his father by ICE agents in Minnesota on Tuesday in what some local officials say is the latest instance of heightened federal immigration enforcement in the state.

The family of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained on Tuesday as part of the federal government’s ongoing immigration crackdown, has a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States, officials at Conejo Ramos’ school said in a statement.

The 5-year-old was apprehended by immigration officials shortly after arriving home from preschool while his father was in their driveway, officials said. 

“Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused,” officials from Conejo Ramos’ school said. “Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running vehicle, led him to the door, and directed him to knock — asking to be let in to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”

The father and child are both government custody, school officials said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, “ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED.”

“On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration,” the statement 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.” 

“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. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement,” the DHS statement said.

The family’s attorney, at a press conference Thursday, said the 5-year-old and his father “did everything right.”

“Liam and his dad did enter the United States at a port of entry to seek asylum through the CBP One app,” attorney Marc Prokosch said. “They used the app, they made an appointment. They came to the border and presented themselves to Customs and Border Protection. They were just trying to secure safety from persecution for their family from their home country.”

“These are not illegal aliens,” Prokosch said. “They came properly.”

Prokosch said that boy and his father are at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.

Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said the ICE activity in the community is “inducing trauma.”

“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, and coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids,” she said.

Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights Public Schools Board of Education, said during the presser that Conejo Ramos’ mother was in the house at the time he was detained.

“She wanted her child,” Granlund said.

School officials said that three other students from their district have been recently detained by immigration authorities.

According to the officials, two weeks ago, a 10-year-old fourth grader was detained by ICE agents on her way to elementary school with her mother.  During the arrest, officials said, the child called her father to tell him the ICE agents were bringing her to school. 

“The father immediately came to the school to find that both his daughter and wife had been taken,” officials said. “By the end of the school day, they were already in a detention center in Texas, and they are still there.” 

On Wednesday, a 17-year-old high school student was detained by “armed and masked agents,” school officials said. 

“Our children should not be afraid to come to school or wait at the bus stop,” Board Chair Mary Granlund said in a statement. “Their families should not be afraid to drop off or pick up their children from school.”