Contrary to Media Spin, ICE Did Not Target a Five-Year-Old Nor Use Him for Bait

 

The media and liberal members of Congress have made false claims about a viral case in Minnesota, alleging that ICE targeted a five-year-old child. In reality, the child was abandoned by his father, an illegal alien, while the father fled arrest.

Accounts of the January 20, 2026 incident in Columbia Heights, including those from witnesses and school officials critical of ICE, do not claim the child was alone on the street or in the driveway before ICE arrived. All accounts confirm the child was inside the vehicle with his father when agents approached to make an immigration arrest. The child was left without parental supervision only after the father fled the vehicle, abandoning him in a running car during freezing winter conditions.

An ICE officer remained with the child to ensure his safety while other officers apprehended the father. Officers made multiple attempts to transfer custody to the mother inside the house, assuring her she would not be arrested, but she refused to take the child. The father requested that the child remain with him.

The father and child are now together in a family detention facility in Texas. Minnesota Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, condemned the incident as ICE mistreating children. The White House called out Democrats and the media for spreading a false narrative and said such claims have fueled a sharp increase in assaults on ICE agents.

The details of the arrest are as follows: On January 20, 2026, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias in the driveway of his home in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb. Conejo Arias, an Ecuadorian national released into the U.S. by the Biden administration, had just arrived home with his 5-year-old son, Liam Conejo Ramos, who was returning from preschool at Valley View Elementary.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated that when agents approached the vehicle, Conejo Arias fled on foot, abandoning his child. Agitators then arrived at the scene, yelling and blowing horns, which frightened the child. Officers provided McDonald’s food and played the child’s favorite music to comfort him.

Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik, school board chair Mary Granlund, lawyer Marc Prokosch, and witnesses said agents removed the child from the still-running vehicle and led him to the front door, directing him to knock to check if anyone else was inside. Stenvik was inside the home supporting the mother during the incident and did not witness the father flee, only seeing him handcuffed in the driveway. Witnesses reported the father yelled not to open the door and the mother pleaded through a window.

Multiple adults on site offered to take custody of the child, but agents declined. DHS policy allows parents to choose to be removed with their children or have ICE place children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations. ICE cannot legally hand a child to unauthorized persons without verified legal guardianship or express parental consent. The father chose to keep the child with him, which is why they were transported together to the family detention facility.

The allegation spread widely on social media and was amplified by elected officials. Former Vice President Kamala Harris expressed outrage over the child’s detention in Texas, Rep. Ilhan Omar called the incident vile and not focused on serious criminals, and DNC Chair Ken Martin claimed ICE detained a five-year-old.

DHS called these claims a horrific smear and emphasized that ICE officers were the only people primarily concerned with the child’s welfare after both parents abandoned him.

Vice President JD Vance defended ICE operations, stating the 5-year-old was not arrested and that his father was an illegal alien who ran when agents attempted arrest. Vance asked what ICE was supposed to do—let a 5-year-old freeze to death or not arrest an illegal alien in the United States. He noted that if the argument is that people with children cannot be arrested, then every parent would have immunity from law enforcement.

The media narrative strips agency and responsibility from the parents who abandoned the child. It portrays ICE as cruel despite officers attempting to reunite the child with his mother and omits that the mother refused custody after being assured she would not be arrested. It ignores that protesters frightened the child and misrepresents offers by unrelated adults to take custody, even though ICE cannot legally hand a child to unauthorized persons. The result is manufactured outrage that conceals the fact that the child remains with his father at the father’s request.

Family attorney Marc Prokosch acknowledged that the actions were probably not illegal, even while calling them cruel. However, there appears to have been no cruelty at all except on the part of a father who abandoned his child and a mother who refused to accept him. He also said both father and son entered the U.S. lawfully to seek asylum, described them as pursuing a legal pathway, and stated that the father had no prior criminal convictions. Pursuing a legal pathway, however, does not equate to legal status.

DHS has described the father as an illegal alien from Ecuador, suggesting the family may have been paroled pending asylum adjudication. Asylum applicants are not legal residents and remain subject to immigration enforcement. The father’s lack of criminal history does not affect the validity of the immigration arrest.

All accounts, including from ICE critics, confirm the child was with his father when ICE arrived, that the father left the vehicle leaving the child alone, and that both parents refused to take custody of the child despite ICE’s repeated attempts and assurances the mother would not be arrested.

The post Contrary to Media Spin, ICE Did Not Target a Five-Year-Old Nor Use Him for Bait appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.