ICE detains 5-year-old, 3 other children in Minnesota school district

by · UPI

Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained four children from the same Minnesota school district this month, including a 5-year-old boy.

Preschooler Liam Ramos was detained in the driveway of his home along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, on Tuesday. The father and son were then transported to a detention center in Texas.

Ramos is a student in the Columbia Heights Public School District in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

The district's superintendent, Zena Stenvik, went to Ramos' home after learning of his detention. She said Ramos and his father had just gotten home when they were detained and their vehicle was still running when she arrived.

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"Why detain a 5-year-old? You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal," Stenvik said.

After detaining his father, ICE agents asked Ramos to knock on the door of his home to see if anyone else was there, using him as "bait," the school district said in a statement. An adult living in the home "begged the agents" to leave Ramos with them but ICE agents refused, kept him detained and sent him to Texas.

Ramos is the fourth child in the Columbia Heights Public School District to be detained by ICE this month.

A 17-year-old student was also detained on Tuesday while walking to school. School officials say no parents were present at the time and that the armed and masked people who took the student were believed to be ICE agents.

Last week, a 17-year-old student and her mother were detained. Before that, a 10-year-old and her mother were detained. That child, who is in fourth grade, called their father to tell him ICE agents were bringing her to school, the school district said. The father came to the school to find his daughter and wife had been taken into detention and were being transported to Texas.

Tension over ICE's presence in the Minneapolis area remains high after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month. Good was a mother of three.

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