Thousands defy ICE, frigid weather to protest against US immigration crackdown and child’s detention

MINNEAPOLIS – Thousands braved icy conditions on Jan 23 to protest against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, and businesses closed their doors amid anger over the detention of a five-year-old migrant boy.

Dozens of eateries, attraction sites and other businesses were shuttered as part of a day of coordinated action to defy the weeks-long federal immigration operation under way in Minnesota.

Images of a terrified-looking pre-schooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, being held by immigration officers who were seeking to arrest the boy’s father have rekindled public outrage at the federal crackdown, during which an agent shot and killed a US citizen.

The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam was a pre-school pupil, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Mr Adrian Conejo Arias – both asylum seekers – were taken from their driveway as they arrived home on Jan 20.

Liam was then used as “bait” by officers to draw out those inside his home, Superintendent Zena Stenvik added.

One protester, who declined to be named, said he was marching “because if we don’t fight, we don’t win. If we don’t fight, fascism wins”.

The local man held a sign reading “five years old, dude”, a reference to Liam.

“This shouldn’t be happening to anybody, but it absolutely should not be happening to children,” he said.

Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as US President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport illegal immigrants across the country.

On a visit to Minneapolis on Jan 22, Vice-President J.D. Vance confirmed Liam was among those detained. He 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 human rights chief Volker Turk called on the US authorities to end the “harmful treatment of migrants and refugees”.

Mr Arias was being held at a Texas detention facility, according to an ICE database that does not list the whereabouts of those under 18.

‘Dealing with children’

Border Patrol senior official Gregory Bovino defended his officers’ treatment of Liam, telling reporters on Jan 23: “I will say unequivocally that we are experts in dealing with children.”

ICE commander Marcos Charles said his “officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family” and alleged that Liam’s family refused to open the door for them after his father left him and ran from officers.

They would be detained “pending their immigration proceedings”, he added, after alleging they had entered the US illegally and were therefore “deportable”.

Liam’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright, young student”.

In Minneapolis, where temperatures fell to minus 23 deg C on Jan 23, protesters wrapped in hats, gloves and scarves chanted “ICE out” as part of a broader anti-ICE day of action.

Separately, protesters picketed outside Minneapolis-St Paul airport over the facility’s use for deporting those swept up in immigration raids, with the local media citing organisers as saying about 100 clergy were arrested.

‘Being brutal’

Former US vice-president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Liam’s detention and called him “just a baby”.

Liam is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district in January, administrators said.

Increasingly tense protests have rocked Minneapolis since federal agents shot and killed Ms Renee Good, an American citizen, on Jan 7.

An autopsy concluded that the killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed.

The officer who fired the shots that killed Ms Good, Mr Jonathan Ross, has been neither suspended nor charged.

Mr Marc Prokosch, the lawyer for Liam and his father, said they followed the law in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with the federal immigration authorities.

Children have been caught up in immigration enforcement under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

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. A hearing on the application is scheduled for Jan 26.

ICE agents were “not following the law, and really they’re being mean to all our neighbours here in Minnesota”, said a protester who gave their name only as Aron. “They’re actually being brutal.” AFP