ICE has detained 4 children from a Minnesota school district, including a 5-year-old

The superintendent of a Minneapolis-area school district says that ICE has taken four children enrolled in her district in the past three weeks. Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old girl was taken along with her mother as she was on her way to school. Last week, ICE agents entered the apartment of a 17-year-old student and took her and her mother. On Tuesday this week, a 17-year-old student was taken from his car on his way to school by masked and armed ICE agents. On the same day, agents took 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and later detained his father. They are now being held in a Texas facility.

Little is known about the cases of the other three children, but Ramos case has drawn widespread attention. According to their attorney, the family has an active asylum case. Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights Public Schools district superintendent, said that she had seen the paperwork showing an active asylum case and no deportation order. Liam’s father does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota.

Contrasting accounts

Local and federal officials have given differing accounts of what happened when little Liam was taken. Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member, said that Liam watched as agents took his father from the driveway of their home. The agents then took Liam from a running car in front of the home. Stenvik says that the ICE agents then used the boy as “bait”. The agents then took the boy to the back door of the house and instructed him to knock to find out who else was inside the home.

Mary Granlund, the school board chair, happened to be driving by when she saw the commotion and got out to investigate. She heard an adult inside the house begging the agents to leave the child, but says that agents refused. Instead, the agents bundled Liam into an SUV and drove away.

The Department of Homeland Security claims that Liam was “abandoned” when his father fled agents. DHS also claims that they attempted to get the child’s mother to take custody of the child but she refused.