Photo credit; Aljazeera
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have detained a 5-year-old boy.
AA reports that the boy was taken from his home in the state of Minnesota on Thursday
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The child was taken by ICE agents from the driveway of his suburban Minnesota home on Tuesday after returning from preschool and was transported with his father to an immigration facility in Texas.
School officials said at a news conference that Liam Conego Ramos was removed from the family’s car in front of their home and taken by agents.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights School District said, “Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused.”
She added that ICE agents “led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement to clarify the context of the boy’s detainment.
“ICE did NOT target a child,” DHS officials posted on US social media company X. “The child was ABANDONED.”
According to DHS and ICE officials, the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was the target of an immigration sting due to his illegal immigration status in the US from Ecuador.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that DHS and ICE were conducting an operation to arrest the child’s father when he “fled on foot, abandoning his child.”
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended” the father, said McLaughlin.
