JD Vance Defends ICE Detainment of 5-Year-Old Boy and His Father Returning Home from Preschool.

Vice President JD Vance defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota after images of a 5-year-old boy being detained spread widely online.

At a Thursday, Jan. 22 press conference in Minneapolis, Vance, 41, was asked by a reporter whether he was “proud” of how the Trump administration has carried out its recent immigration crackdown in the state.

Vance said he was proud that the administration was “standing behind law enforcement” and “enforcing the country’s laws.”

He was then questioned about the detention of a young child after multiple outlets reported that Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained in their driveway while returning home from the child’s preschool earlier this week.

Vance said that, as the father of a 5-year-old son, he initially questioned the actions taken by officers. But he said he concluded the response was justified after being told the boy’s father — whom the government says was in the country illegally — ran from officers during an attempted arrest.

“So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?” Vance said, with ICE and Border Patrol officers standing behind him. “Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”

Vance later acknowledged that children can be swept into enforcement actions, calling it traumatic.

“It’s traumatic for the kids. I can recognize that, and I can recognize that we’ve got to support these kids while, on the other hand, saying that just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean that you get complete immunity from law enforcement,” he said.

Vance’s remarks followed viral images showing Liam wearing a blue knitted hat and a Spider-Man backpack.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has denied that Liam was being targeted.

“On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration,” DHS posted on X.

“As agents approached the driver Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, 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 Conejo Arias,” DHS continued.

After his father was detained, ICE agents allegedly asked Liam to knock on the door of the family’s home to see if anyone else was inside — effectively “using a 5-year-old as bait,” The Washington Post reported, citing Columbia Heights Public Schools.

The school district said another adult living in the home, who had been outside at the time, “begged the agents” to leave Liam with them, but agents refused, according to the outlet.

The Washington Post also reported that Liam’s older brother, a middle school student, returned home about 20 minutes later to find his father and younger brother had been taken away.

The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, told The Guardian that Liam and his father had been seeking asylum in the U.S. and had an active case. He added that they entered the U.S. through an official port of entry.

“The family did everything they were supposed to in accordance with how the rules have been set out,” he said, according to the outlet. “They did not come here illegally. They are not criminals.”

The detentions come after weeks of rising tension between Minneapolis-area residents and federal immigration officials — unrest that escalated after U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good, 37, a mother of three, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on the morning of Jan. 7.

Good had been driving a maroon Honda Pilot and had just dropped her 6-year-old son at school before her wife, Becca, 40, suggested they take a detour, as ICE agents had flooded parts of the city and protesters were gathering. Good never made it home.

Becca said in a statement after the shooting, “We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.”