ICE detains four students in Minnesota school district, including a 5‑year‑old

U.S. immigration officials detained at least four children this month, including a 5-year-old enrolled in a Minneapolis-area school district, amid President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement, according to school officials and city leaders who spoke on Thursday.

The Republican administration has sent roughly 3,000 federal officers into Minnesota’s largest city, heightening anxiety among residents who have been on edge since an immigration officer fatally shot a U.S. citizen earlier this month. Democratic officials and local leaders say federal agents have used aggressive and unnecessary tactics that have left many immigrant communities fearful.

One of the children, 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, witnessed masked agents detain his father in their driveway after the pair returned home from preschool on Tuesday. Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member, said she saw several vehicles blocking part of the street near the family’s home.

James said the agents then directed the boy, who was wearing a blue hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack, toward the back door of the house and motioned for him to knock.

"I can't imagine what was going through Liam's mind, but I can tell you what I saw on his face. He was frozen and paralyzed," James told Reuters on Thursday. "He was not crying, but he looked so scared."

The Department of Homeland Security said Liam’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide further details or cite any criminal history.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said parents targeted during ICE operations are asked whether they want their children taken with them or placed with someone designated by the parents.

"ICE did NOT target a child," she said, adding that Conejo Arias fled the scene as agents approached, leaving his child behind.

James said neighbors in the community north of Minneapolis gathered and offered to take the boy, including one person who said they were part of the family. Despite that, she said, agents placed the child in the back seat of a black SUV and drove away.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions following weeks of public outcry after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good, 37, a U.S. citizen and mother of three.

"Why detain a 5-year-old?" Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said at a Wednesday news conference. "You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal."

Stenvik said she had reviewed the legal paperwork and confirmed the family has an active asylum case with no deportation order.

She also said another minor, a 17-year-old high school student, was taken on Tuesday by armed and masked agents while on the way to school, with no parents present.

Stenvik said that two weeks earlier, ICE agents detained a 10-year-old on her way to elementary school, and the child and her mother remain in a Texas detention center. Last week, she said, a 17-year-old high school student was detained along with her mother at their apartment.