{"id":833,"date":"2026-01-24T13:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/?p=833"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:45:40","slug":"ice-detains-four-children-in-minnesota-including-a-five-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/?p=833","title":{"rendered":"ICE Detains Four Children in Minnesota, Including a Five-Year-Old","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. immigration authorities have detained at least four children<\/a><\/strong> from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>, including a five-year-old boy, according to local school officials and an attorney representing the family.<\/p>\n

The case has drawn scrutiny after JD Vance<\/span><\/span><\/strong> publicly defended the detention, a version of events that school leaders and witnesses dispute.<\/p>\n

Family Taken to Texas Detention Facility<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The child, an Ecuadorian national, and his father were taken to a family detention center in Dilley<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, said Marc Prokosch, a lawyer seeking their release. Prokosch said both father and son are in the United States legally as asylum applicants.<\/p>\n

School district officials said the boy, identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, was one of four students detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> this week. The others include two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old.<\/p>\n

Schools Describe Heavy ICE Presence<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, said armed and masked ICE officers have been operating around schools and neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE agents have been roaming our communities, circling our schools, following buses and entering school parking lots,\u201d Stenvik said at a press conference. \u201cThis level of enforcement is traumatizing our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ICE<\/p>\n

Crackdown Fuels Community Tension<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The detentions are part of President Donald Trump<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u2019s expanded immigration crackdown, which has sent roughly 3,000 federal law enforcement officers into the Minneapolis area.<\/p>\n

Tensions in the region have been high since the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, by an immigration officer earlier this month.<\/p>\n

While federal authorities say the operations target dangerous criminals and immigration violators, community members have responded with observer patrols, using whistles to alert residents of ICE activity.<\/p>\n

Conflicting Accounts of Five-Year-Old\u2019s Detention<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Department of Homeland Security<\/span><\/span><\/strong> said Liam\u2019s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally, though officials did not provide further details.<\/p>\n

Witnesses said Liam was wearing a blue hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack when agents detained his father in the driveway after the pair returned from preschool. Officers then took the child with them, despite offers from neighbors, school officials and family members to care for him, witnesses said.<\/p>\n

Vice President Vance said officers had no choice but to take the child after his father fled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they supposed to do \u2014 leave a five-year-old child alone?\u201d Vance said during a visit to Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

However, school board chair Mary Granlund said ICE agents rejected multiple offers of care and attempted to draw the child\u2019s mother out of the house, raising concerns the boy was used as leverage.<\/p>\n

When asked whether the child was used as bait, Granlund replied, \u201cCorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials and Witnesses Describe Child\u2019s Fear<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who witnessed the incident, said the child appeared terrified as officers drove away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was frozen,\u201d James said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t crying, but he looked completely paralyzed with fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prokosch denied claims that the father was in the country illegally, saying Minnesota records show no criminal history for the family. He said they were awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge at the time of the detention.<\/p>\n

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U.S. immigration authorities have detained at least four children from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, including a five-year-old boy, according to local school officials and an attorney representing the family. The case has drawn scrutiny after JD Vance publicly defended the detention, a version of events that school leaders and witnesses dispute. Family Taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":1,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}