US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained a five-year-old boy – after using him as “bait” to capture his father, officials claim.
The pair have since been flown more than 1,000 miles from their home in Minneapolis to a facility in Texas.
It makes him the fourth school student to be detained by the controversial immigration force in recent weeks – amidst a crackdown on the city led by US President Donald Trump.
Agents snatched the boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, from a running car on Tuesday, a local school leader claimed.
The child was then sent to knock on a house to lure his dad, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, outside, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik added.
She said the immigration force was “essentially using a five-year-old as bait,” in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Why detain a five-year-old?” she asked.
Ukraine war latest: France intercepts Russian tanker after tip-off from UK – as Zelenskyy criticises Europe
Who’s on Trump’s Board of Peace – and who said no
Trump latest: Trump didn’t U-turn, NATO boss tells Sky News – as Denmark praises Starmer’s resolve over Greenland
“You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
The White House has struck a different tone, however.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child”.
She insisted the force had come to arrest Conejo Arias, an Ecuadorian national, before he fled on foot “abandoning his child”.
“For the child’s safety,” McLaughlin said, “one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias”.
She added that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing.
Stenvik said the family has an active asylum case and has not been ordered to leave the country.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump leaves Davos after Greenland U-turn
She insisted that there was another adult present when the pair were taken, but the agents would not let Liam be left with him.
They are now in a family holding cell in Texas, Marc Prokosch, the family’s lawyer, claimed.
“Every step of their immigration process has been doing what they’ve been asked to do,” Prokosch said of the family’s asylum claim.
“So this is just cruelty.”
Since Donald Trump ramped up the presence of ICE officers in Minneapolis, two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old have also been taken.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Stenvik said attendances in schools had plummeted in recent weeks – with some classes down by two thirds.
Ella Sullivan, Liam’s teacher, described Liam as “kind and loving”.
“His classmates miss him,” she said. “And all I want is for him to be safe and back here.”
It also comes just weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good.
