A five-year-old boy is at the centre of a row after it was claimed ICE agents used him as “bait” to lure members of his migrant family from their home.
A spokesman for the school that Liam Conejo Ramos attends said he was apprehended and forced to knock on the door of his family’s home in the hopes that they could detain his relatives.
The schoolboy and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained in their driveway in Columbia Heights on Wednesday, just north of Minneapolis, after walking home from school. The father and son were then taken into custody at a Texas detention centre.
Pictures circulated online show the child facing towards a car, with his Spiderman backpack held by a uniformed adult behind him.
An ICE agent stands behind Liam Ramos outside his home
However, a spokesperson for the department of homeland security (DHS) denied the claims, saying: “ICE did not, and has never, used a child as bait”.
“ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED,” a post from the DHS X account read. “As agents approached the driver, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot – abandoning his child.
For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, as per the previous administration’s policy, the spokesman added.
The agency also responded to a post on X by the BBC, captioned “ICE detains 5-year-old during ICE operation”.
“All the BBC does is lie,” the post from the official ICE account on X read.
Liam is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by ICE agents over the past two weeks, a spokesman for his school district said.
The arrests come amid heightened tensions following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an ICE officer earlier this month.
Good, a US citizen and mother-of-three, was killed on Jan 7 in Minneapolis in an encounter that has prompted protests, legal challenges, and national debate over ICE tactics and use of force.
Protests have erupted in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Renee Good – Angelina Katsanis/Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Protests and unrest have gripped the Midwestern city ever since. On Jan 18, a group of activists stormed a church service, claiming a pastor affiliated with the congregation led a local ICE field office.
Pam Bondi, the attorney general, announced the arrest of the alleged ringleader of the group, Nekima Levy Armstrong, in a post on X days after protesters during the Sunday service entered the Cities Church in St Paul.
“Listen loud and clear: We do not tolerate attacks on places of worship,” Ms Bondi wrote on X. Chauntyll Louisa Allen, another alleged participant, was also arrested.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, the alleged ringleader of a group that stormed a church, has been arrested
However, the justice department’s efforts to charge Don Lemon, a former CNN reporter who now works as an independent journalist and covered the protest, were unsuccessful.
Ms Bondi was “enraged” by the judge’s decision, a source told CNN. On Thursday, Greg Bovino, Donald Trump’s Border Patrol commander-at-large, claimed local police were not cooperating with immigration officers.
In one instance, off-duty agents who were apprehended by protesters at a restaurant had to be rescued by a tactical team when Minneapolis police failed to respond to their call, Mr Bovino claimed.
The City of Minneapolis Police Department has not commented.
JD Vance, the vice-president, visited Minneapolis on Thursday to show support for the federal law enforcement operation.
Describing the incident in which five-year-old Liam was detained as “terrible,” Mr Vance supported the agents in their decision.
“The five-year-old was not arrested; his dad was an illegal alien and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran.
“So the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old. Well what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
He later added that, “whenever you have a law enforcement operation, even if 99.99 per cent of the guys do everything perfectly, you’re going to have people that make mistakes.”
Before his departure, Mr Vance said that Minneapolis authorities were preventing ICE agents from doing their jobs.
He has previously defended the ICE officer involved in Good’s killing, publicly backing the officer and blaming Good less than 24 hours after her death.
The Trump administration has sought to justify its crackdown on the Democratic-leaning state by saying that the officers are detaining immigrants convicted of violent crimes.
Federal agents stand guard in Minneapolis on Wednesday – Angelina Katsanis/Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
A force of 3,000 federal law enforcement officers has been deployed to the area.
“Why detain a five-year-old?” Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public Schools district, said at a news conference. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
There was another adult at the home who “begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused,” Ms Stenvik added.
“Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running vehicle, led him to the door, and directed him to knock – asking to be let in to see if anyone else was home – essentially using a five-year-old as bait,” she said.
Liam’s older brother, a middle-school student, arrived home 20 minutes later to find his father and younger brother missing, Ms Stenvik added.
Liam is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by ICE agents over the past two weeks
Liam and his father are now being held in San Antonio in the custody of the department of homeland security (DHS).
While neither is a US citizen, the family’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, said Liam and his father have complied fully with the legal immigration process, presenting themselves at the border, applying for asylum, and waiting for their cases to be adjudicated.
“The family did everything they were supposed to in accordance with how the rules have been set out,” he said. “They did not come here illegally. They are not criminals.”
On the first day of his second term, Mr Trump pledged to launch a sweeping immigration crackdown targeting “the worst criminal offenders”.
But critics, including some within his own party, say the criteria for arrests appear far broader in practice, with US citizens and people with no criminal records detained and community members accusing ICE of arresting anyone with an accent.
A woman protests against the presence of ICE officers in Portland, Maine – Robert F. Bukaty/Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump insisted that his administration is only “focused on the murderers” and “looking to get the criminals out”. He suggested they were not focused on hard-working people like farm workers and hotel staff. “We have a lot of heart,” he said.
Axios also reported that some Trump advisers were quietly discussing “recalibrating” the White House’s approach.
“He wants deportations. He wants mass deportations. What he doesn’t want is what people are seeing. He doesn’t like the way it looks. It looks bad, so he’s expressed some discomfort at that,” a top Trump adviser told the news site.
Ella Sullivan, Liam’s teacher, described the child as “very friendly” and “a bright young student”. “He comes into class every day, and he just brightens the room,” she told the Post. “His friends haven’t asked about him yet, but I know that they’ll catch on.”
