The child was accompanied by his father, who was also taken away by US authorities. The two are in a family detention center
A five-year-old boy who was taken by federal agents from his driveway in the Minneapolis metropolitan area on Tuesday after returning from school is being held with his father at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, was removed from a family car that had the engine running, said Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights school district, a suburb of Minneapolis.
“Another adult living in the house was outside and begged the officers to leave the small child in their care, but the request was refused,” Stenvik said at a press conference on Wednesday.
According to the person responsible, an agent “took the child to the door and asked him to knock, to see if anyone else was home — using, in practice, a five-year-old boy as bait”.
On Thursday, ICE said the agency “did not, and has never, used ‘a child as bait.’ The child was ABANDONED.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that the father, a native of Ecuador, was the target of the operation. The two ended up being detained together.
Ramos is the latest case of a child implicated in the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations in Minnesota and across the country. This campaign has been marked by aggressive tactics by armed and hooded agents, the detention of US citizens and the repression of protests, as clashes over the legality of these actions intensify. In response, residents in targeted areas have alerted neighbors and sometimes taken steps to hinder immigration agents’ movements and operations.
According to a source with direct knowledge of what happened Tuesday, the father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, and his son are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas — an ICE facility designed for families.
In a statement sent to CNN, DHS said ICE was conducting an operation to detain the child’s father when he “fled on foot — abandoning his son.”
“To ensure the child’s safety, one of our ICE agents remained with the child while other agents detained” the father, explained DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in an email sent to CNN.
“We conduct legal, ethical and moral law enforcement missions here in Minneapolis,” said Gregory Bovino, commanding general of the Border Patrol, at a press conference Thursday. “I have not detained a five-year-old child, and we will continue this law enforcement mission.”
Liam Conejo Ramos, 5 years old, was arrested, along with his father, as he was getting home from school (Columbia Heights Public Schools)
The department added that the father had been released to remain in the United States during the Biden administration.
The family presented themselves to border agents in Texas in December 2024 to seek asylum, according to the family’s lawyer, Mark Prokosch.
“They did absolutely everything correctly, everything that was asked of them,” assured Prokosch at a press conference. “The family is filing an asylum claim, which is legal. The difference is now we have to do it with half the family in Texas.”
The Dilley facility — designed as a residential detention center, not a criminal one — was created to house families. It is made up of a series of modular containers, with dedicated spaces, such as a library, gym and classrooms. Children detained at Dilley range from babies to teenagers.
Liam’s case is not the only one in the school district located about 7 miles north of Minneapolis. Three other students were also taken by ICE, .
Also on Tuesday, a 17-year-old Columbia Heights High School student who was heading to school was detained by armed, hooded officers, Stenvik said.
“No parents were present. The student was removed from the car and taken away,” he said.
Last week, ICE agents entered the apartment of another 17-year-old student and her mother. Both were arrested, according to the school district.
Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old fourth-grader was taken by ICE agents as she walked to school with her mother and now remains in a Texas detention center, the district said.
CNN asked DHS for more details about these cases.
