ICE Officers Detain Four Minnesota Students Including Five-Year-Old Boy
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have taken four students into custody within a single Minnesota school district, with one detainee being a five-year-old boy, according to local education officials. The incident has sparked significant controversy and raised serious questions about immigration enforcement tactics involving children.
Driveway Arrest of Preschooler and Father
On Tuesday afternoon, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were apprehended by ICE officers in their driveway immediately after the child returned home from preschool. Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools located north of Minneapolis, described the distressing scene that unfolded.
"The officers instructed the young boy to knock on his own front door to determine whether other individuals were inside the residence," Ms Stenvik revealed to reporters. "This essentially amounted to using a five-year-old child as bait during an enforcement operation."
The superintendent expressed profound concern about the appropriateness of detaining such a young child. "Why would anyone detain a five-year-old?" she questioned. "Nobody can reasonably claim that this child should be classified as a violent criminal requiring this level of enforcement action."
Family Separated and Transported to Texas
According to the superintendent's account, the father managed to communicate to the boy's mother, who remained inside the family home, that she should not open the door during the arrest. Following their detention, Liam and his father have been transported more than one thousand miles from their Minneapolis residence to a detention facility located in Texas.
Mary Granlund, chair of Columbia Heights Public Schools, expressed deep distress about the situation affecting her district. "We have now had four children taken from our school district," she stated emphatically. "That represents far too many children being subjected to this treatment. These children should be focusing on reading, writing, science, and all their educational subjects rather than facing immigration detention."
Additional Student Detentions Revealed
The three other recently detained students include a ten-year-old girl and two seventeen-year-olds, with at least one of the teenagers being female according to official statements. These detentions have occurred amid what appears to be increased ICE activity in the Minneapolis area in recent weeks.
Ms Stenvik provided further disturbing details about the other cases. A seventeen-year-old student was reportedly removed from a vehicle on Tuesday and "taken by armed, masked agents without any parental presence." Two weeks prior, a ten-year-old student was detained while traveling to school with her mother, with both ending up in a Texas detention center where they remain. Last week, agents allegedly forced their way into an apartment to detain another seventeen-year-old student along with her mother.
Official Response and Conflicting Accounts
The White House has presented a markedly different perspective on Liam's particular case. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement asserting that "ICE did NOT target a child" during the operation.
Ms McLaughlin explained that officers had arrived to arrest Conejo Arias, identified as an Ecuadorian national, when he attempted to flee on foot while "abandoning his child." "For the child's safety, one ICE officer remained with the child while other officers apprehended Conejo Arias," she clarified.
The spokesperson further noted that parents facing removal are typically given the choice to either be removed alongside their children or have them placed with a designated individual. However, Ms Stenvik countered that the family has an active asylum case pending and has not received any official order to leave the country.
Broader Context and Community Impact
These incidents occur against a backdrop of heightened ICE presence in Minneapolis following policy changes. The superintendent reported that school attendance has dramatically decreased in recent weeks, with some classes experiencing declines of up to two-thirds of their normal enrollment.
The situation follows another controversial incident weeks earlier when an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good, further intensifying community concerns about immigration enforcement practices in the area.
The detention of four students, including a preschool-aged child, has ignited a fierce debate about the methods employed during immigration enforcement operations and their impact on children's wellbeing and education.
