Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained four children from the same Minnesota school district this month, including a 5-year-old boy, according to school officials.
Preschooler Liam Ramos was detained Tuesday in the driveway of his home along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias. Authorities then transported both to a detention center in Texas.
Ramos is a student in the Columbia Heights Public School District, a suburban district north of Minneapolis.
Superintendent Zena Stenvik said she went to the family’s home after learning what happened. She said the child and his father had only just returned when they were detained — and their vehicle was still running when she arrived.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Stenvik said. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
In a statement, the school district alleged that after detaining the father, ICE agents asked Ramos to knock on the home’s door to see if anyone else was inside — using the child as “bait.” The district said an adult in the home pleaded with agents to leave Ramos there, but officers refused and sent him to Texas.
Ramos is the fourth child in the Columbia Heights Public School District to be detained by ICE this month, the district said.
On Tuesday, a 17-year-old student was also detained while walking to school, according to school officials. They said no parents were present at the time and that armed, masked individuals who took the student were believed to be ICE agents.
Last week, another 17-year-old student and her mother were detained, the district said. Earlier this month, a 10-year-old and her mother were also detained. The district said the fourth-grade student called her father to say ICE agents were bringing her to school. When he arrived, he learned his daughter and wife had already been taken into custody and were being transported to Texas.
Tensions around ICE activity in the Minneapolis area have remained high since an ICE agent, identified as Jonathan Ross, fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month. Good was a mother of three.
