School official says the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, was ‘essentially’ used ‘as bait to apprehend his father, who is seeking asylum in the US.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained a five-year-old boy arriving home from preschool in Minnesota, after allegedly using him “as bait” to apprehend his father, who has a pending asylum case.

Federal agents took the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, from a running car while it was in the family’s driveway on Tuesday afternoon, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference on Wednesday.

The officers then told the child to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, Stenvik said.

Stenvik said the family, who came to the United States in 2024, has an active asylum case and had not been ordered to leave the country.

“Why detain a five-year-old?” she asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child”.

She said ICE was conducting an operation to arrest the child’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who McLaughlin said is from Ecuador.

“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” McLaughlin said, adding that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing.

Liam is the fourth student from Columbia Heights Public Schools who has been detained by ICE in recent weeks, said Stenvik. A 17-year-old student was taken on Tuesday while heading to school, and a 10-year-old and a 17-year-old have also been taken, she said.

The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said on Thursday that Liam and his father were taken to an immigration lockup in Dilley, Texas, and that he assumes they were being held in a family holding cell.

“We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or moral pressure,” he said at a news conference.

A lawyer who visited the Dilley detention facility last week, as part of an ongoing lawsuit to ensure the safekeeping of immigrant children in federal custody, said conditions were deteriorating.

“The conditions were worse than ever,” said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsellor at the advocacy group Children’s Rights.

“The number of children had skyrocketed, and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said.

“Nearly every child we spoke to was sick – and it seemed there was an epidemic of illnesses going around. Families reported that their children were malnourished, extremely ill, and suffering profoundly from prolonged detention,” Welch said.

During a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, US Vice President JD Vance said he heard the “terrible story” about Liam, but said he was not sure what the federal agents could have done differently.

“Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” said Vance, noting that he was also the parent of a five-year-old.

US federal agents have arrested some 3,000 people in immigration raids across Minnesota in recent weeks, according to Greg Bovino, a US Customs and Border Protection official.

Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate.

Also on Thursday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said that three people have been arrested in Minneapolis after they protested at Cities Church in St Paul, where they alleged one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director for the St Paul ICE field office. Those arrested included Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and St Paul school board member Chauntyll Louisa Allen, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper.

In a post on X, Bondi said that Armstrong had played a “key role” in organising the protest on Sunday.