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U.S. Federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis have ignited fierce public backlash and calls for a general strike after officials detained a five-year-old pre-school student and his father, with school administrators alleging agents used the child as "bait" to draw out family members from their home.
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, both asylum seekers from Ecuador, were apprehended in their driveway as they arrived home, according to Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools. Stenvik said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers then used the child to knock on the door in an attempt to get those inside to open it.
The incident has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump's expanded immigration enforcement campaign, with thousands of ICE agents deployed to the Democratic-led city. Vice President JD Vance defended the detention Thursday, claiming agents were protecting the child 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?" Vance said.
ICE commander Marcos Charles said Friday that officers "did everything they could to reunite him with his family" and alleged that Ramos's family refused to open the door after his father left him and fled from officers. Charles said both Ramos and his father entered the United States illegally and are "deportable," adding they were being held at a "family residential center pending their immigration proceedings."
Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, whose Texas constituency includes a San Antonio ICE detention center where Ramos was believed to have been taken, rejected Vance's explanation. Castro said his staff has been working to locate the child and demand his release.
Marc Prokosch, the lawyer representing Ramos and his father, said the pair followed proper procedures by applying for asylum in Minneapolis, a sanctuary city where local police do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Calls for mass action have gained momentum on social media, with anti-Trump group Indivisible Twin Cities organizing a day of "No work. No school. No shopping." Demonstrations were expected in downtown Minneapolis Friday, and multiple businesses reportedly shut down in protest.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said she was "outraged" by Ramos's detention, calling him "just a baby." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused agents of treating children "like criminals."
Ramos is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, local administrators said. The child's teacher, identified as Ella, called him "a bright young student" who "brightens the room" each day, adding that his classmates miss him.
Minneapolis has experienced increasingly volatile protests since federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Good on January 7. The officer who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged. Three activists face charges for disrupting a Sunday church service with a protest accusing a pastor of collaborating with ICE.
Vance claimed that sanctuary policies complicate enforcement efforts. "The lack of cooperation between state and local officials makes it harder for us to do our job and turns up the temperature," he said.
Charles alleged that "agitators" with shields had gathered outside the federal facility where he spoke Friday, which has become a focal point for anti-ICE protests.
Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order against the ICE operation, which would pause the enforcement sweeps if granted by a federal judge. A hearing on the application is scheduled for Monday.
UN rights chief Volker Turk called on U.S. authorities to end the "dehumanizing portrayal and harmful treatment of migrants and refugees."
Children have been detained in federal immigration enforcement operations under both Republican and Democratic administrations, though the practice has drawn consistent criticism from human rights advocates.
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