Federal officers detain a 5-year-old boy who a school official says was used as ‘bait’

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A 5-year-old boy arriving home from preschool in Minnesota was taken by federal agents along with his father to a detention facility in Texas, school officials and the family’s lawyer said, making him the fourth student from his Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.

Federal agents took Liam Conejo Ramos from a running car in the family’s driveway Tuesday afternoon, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters Wednesday. The officers told him to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.

The father told the child’s mother, who was inside the home and has not been named, not to open the door, Stenvik told reporters Thursday.

School officials said the agents wouldn’t leave Liam with another adult who lives at the home or an official from the school district. But on Thursday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an online post that the father asked for the child to stay with him and that they are together at an immigration lockup in Dilley, Texas.

The family, who came to the U.S. in 2024, has an active asylum case and had not been ordered to leave the country, Stenvik said.

McLaughlin said in a statement Wednesday that “ICE did NOT target a child.” She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arresting the child’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who McLaughlin said is from Ecuador and in the U.S. illegally. He fled on foot, “abandoning his child,” she said.

“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” McLaughlin said, adding that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing.

Minnesota has become a major focus of federal immigration sweeps. Greg Bovino, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official who has been the face of the crackdowns, said immigration officers have made about 3,000 arrests in Minnesota in the last six weeks.

Others offered to take the child

Stenvik suggested that the father did not run. She said another adult who lives at the home was outside when the father and son were taken, but agents wouldn’t leave Liam with that person.

Mary Granlund, school board chair for Columbia Heights Public Schools, told reporters Thursday that she had told agents she would take the child before they left with him.

Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who lives nearby the family, said she saw another neighbor from across the street tell the agents they had papers authorizing them to take care of Liam on behalf of the parents. The agents ignored them, James said.

The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said Thursday that he assumes Liam and his father are in a family holding cell but that they have not been able to have “direct contact” with them.

“We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or through moral pressure,” he said at a news conference.

Vice President JD Vance met with Minneapolis leaders Thursday and said he heard the “terrible story” but later learned the boy was only detained, not arrested.

“Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” said Vance, noting that he’s the parent of a 5-year-old.

Vance wasn’t asked about why immigration officers allegedly wouldn’t leave the boy with the other adult who lives at the home and offered to take him.

Conditions at the Dilley lockup

Families are reporting that children are malnourished, extremely ill, and suffering profoundly from prolonged detention at the Dilley lockup, where conditions are worse than ever, said Leecia Welch, chief legal counselor at Children’s Rights. Welch visited the facility last week as part of a lawsuit over the welfare of immigrant children in federal custody.

“The number of children had skyrocketed and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said. The administration in December acknowledged that about 400 children had faced extended detention.

“Nearly every child we spoke to was sick,” Welch said.

Students kept home after their classmates were detained

Columbia Heights Public Schools has five schools and about 3,400 students from pre-K to 12th grade, according to its website. Most come from immigrant families, Stenvik said.

Before Liam, A 17-year-old was taken Tuesday while heading to school, and a 10-year-old and a 17-year-old have also been taken, Stenvik said. Attendance has dropped over the past two weeks, including one day where about one-third of the students were out from school, she said.

“Over the last few weeks, ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lot multiple times and taking our kids,” said Stenvik, adding that this is causing “trauma.”

Ella Sullivan, Liam’s teacher, described him as “kind and loving.”

“His classmates miss him,” she said. “And all I want is for him to be safe and back here.”

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Hallie Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporters Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this story.