Fury grows over five-year-old’s detention in US immigration crackdown
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An activist being arrested by police in Minneapolis on Jan 23, after protesters attempted to block a street in front of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers, were detained in Minneapolis during a large ICE operation, sparking outrage and protests.
- Officials claim Liam's father fled, while critics, including Kamala Harris and Joaquin Castro, denounce the detention, with calls for Liam's release.
- Minneapolis faces increasing tension after the detention, fuelled by past incidents, and Minnesota seeks a restraining order against the ICE operation.
AI generated
MINNEAPOLIS - US federal officials struggled Jan 23 to quell growing outrage over the detention of a five-year-old boy in a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, as businesses in the city shut down in protest at the ongoing raids.
The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam Conejo Ramos was a pre-school student, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Mr Adrian Conejo Arias – both asylum seekers – were taken from their driveway as they arrived home.
Liam was then used as “bait” by immigration officers to knock on the door of his home to draw out those inside, Ms Zena Stenvik added.
Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport illegal immigrants across the country.
In defiant comments on Jan 22, Vice-President J.D. Vance confirmed Liam was among those detained, but argued that agents were protecting him after his father “ran” from officers.
“What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?“ he said.
UN rights chief Volker Turk called on US authorities to end the “dehumanising portrayal and harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”
Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, whose constituency includes a San Antonio ICE detention centre to which it was thought Liam was taken, rejected Mr Vance’s explanation.
“My staff and I have been trying to figure out his whereabouts, make sure he’s safe, and also to demand his release by ICE,” he wrote on X.
ICE commander Marcos Charles said on Jan 23 “my officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family” and alleged that Liam’s family refused to open the door to him after his father left him and ran from officers.
Liam and his father were at a “family residential centre pending their immigration proceedings,” he added, after alleging they entered the United States illegally and were “deportable.”
Comm Charles claimed that “agitators” with shields had gathered outside the federal facility where he was speaking, a flashpoint for anti-ICE protests.
Liam’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright young student.”
“His classmates miss him. He comes into class every day and just brightens the room. All I want is for him to be back here and safe,” she said, in a statement on Jan 21.
Calls for a day of action against ICE and a general strike have been gaining traction on social media, with a demonstration expected in downtown Minneapolis on Jan 23.
Anti-Trump group Indivisible Twin Cities called for a day of “No work. No school. No shopping.”
‘Just a baby’
Former US vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Liam’s detention and called him “just a baby.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said agents treated children “like criminals.”
Liam is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, local administrators said.
Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good
Three activists were charged with disrupting a Sunday church service with a protest accusing a pastor of working for ICE.
The officer who fired the shots that killed Ms Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged.
Mr Marc Prokosch, the lawyer for Liam and his father, said they followed the law in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, which is a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with federal immigration.
Children have long been caught up in federal immigration enforcement, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Mr Vance claimed sanctuary policies 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,” Mr 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 Jan 26. AFP
