ICE says the child was not targeted and remained with an officer while his father was apprehended during the operation.
Democrats and local officials in Minneapolis expressed outrage on Thursday at the detention of a five-year-old boy in a massive immigration crackdown, as US Vice-President JD Vance defended federal agents’ actions.
Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as the administration of President Donald Trump presses its campaign to deport what it says are millions of illegal immigrants across the country.
Vance confirmed on Thursday that the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, was among those detained, but argued that agents were protecting the boy after his father “ran” from an immigration sweep.
“What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” he said.
Democratic Texas congressman Joaquin Castro rejected that explanation, branding Homeland Security authorities “sick liars”.
Castro said that he had not been able to locate the boy, who was reportedly being held with his father in San Antonio, Texas.
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“My staff and I have been working to figure out his whereabouts, make sure that he’s safe and also to demand his release by ICE,” he said in a video posted on X.
But ICE “have not given us information:” he said.
Former US vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Ramos’s detention.
“Liam Ramos is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention centre,” she wrote on X.
Harris shared a photo of the child wearing a blue knitted hat with dangling, white rabbit ears, while a person behind him appears to hold onto his backpack.
Another photo circulating online shows Ramos escorted by a man wearing black clothes and a black face covering.
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Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton accused law enforcement of “terrorizing a population” and “using children as pawns”.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the federal government was treating children “like criminals”.
Frey said the influx of 3 000 federal agents felt like an “occupation”, the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper reported.
The Homeland Security department rejected claims that ICE agents targeted the child, saying he had been “abandoned” by his father during an operation to arrest the man.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended (his father) Conejo Arias,” it posted on X.
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”
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‘Taking a toll’
Ramos is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, US media have reported citing local administrators.
Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights Public Schools District superintendent, said the children were “apprehended and taken away by masked and armed ICE agents with no identifying badges”.
“The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children,” she told reporters.
The children’s detention came as the US attorney general announced the arrests of three activists accused of disrupting a church service with a protest accusing a pastor of working for ICE.
Videos of that protest showed dozens of demonstrators chanting “ICE out!” in the church.
Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good on January 7.
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The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged with any crime. Trump and his officials quickly defended his actions as legitimate self-defence.
The lawyer for Ramos and his father, Marc Prokosch, said the pair are not US citizens and followed the legal process in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, which is a sanctuary city, meaning police do not cooperate with federal immigration sweeps.
Vance claimed such local efforts were hindering ICE efforts.
“The lack of cooperation between state and local officials makes it harder for us to do our job and turns up the temperature,” Vance said.
Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application on Monday.
