Immigration and Customs Enforcement is receiving backlash over its move to detain children in Minnesota operations.
Tensions in the state have escalated, with protests denouncing the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer she hit with her SUV earlier this month.
The agency’s detention of four children in the Columbia Heights Public School District has further fueled anger against ICE officers. Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters Wednesday that nearly a third of students in her district have stayed home in recent weeks out of fear of the operations.
School officials said two children were taken on Tuesday, including a 17-year-old boy on his way to classes. Later that afternoon, Liam Ramos was also taken. Critics say ICE used the 5-year-old as “bait” to enter his parents’ house.
“Why detain a 5-year-old? You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Stenvik said.
Ramos had just arrived home from preschool when he and his father were apprehended in their driveway, according to Stenvik. She said the family has an “active asylum case” with no deportation orders.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the backlash in a post on X, asserting that, “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. 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,” DHS said.
“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. Parents can take control of their departure and receive a free flight and $2,600 with the CBP Home app. By using the CBP Home app illegal aliens reserve the chance to come back the right legal way,” the agency added.
The Washington Examiner reached out to ICE for comment.
“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.”
ICE rejected the notion that the agency used the child as “bait” in a post on X, suggesting that those making that claim are “lying for clicks.”
“ICE did not, and has never, ‘used a child as bait.’ The child was ABANDONED,” the agency said.
The incident occurred roughly two weeks after a 10-year-old student was taken by ICE officers on her way to school with her mother.
“During the arrest, the child called her father on the phone to tell him that 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,” Stenvik said. “By the end of the school day, they were already in a detention center in Texas, and they are still there.”
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The lawyer representing Ramos’s family called ICE’s actions “cruel,” according to MPR News, but noted that the action was “probably not” illegal. Ramos and his father are now in San Antonio in the custody of Homeland Security authorities, Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family, told the Washington Post.
“I’m exploring whether we file a habeas corpus petition to get him out, we’d have to actually file that down in Texas now,” the attorney added. “Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s moral. You know, yes, they may have the legal authority to detain a 5-year-old, but why?”
