Did ICE detain a 5 year old in Minneapolis?
Executive summary
Yes — multiple independent news outlets report that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a five‑year‑old boy, identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, on Jan. 20, 2026, alongside his father; the child and father were later transferred to a family detention facility in Texas, according to the family’s lawyer, school officials and national press [1] [2] [3].
1. The core facts: what happened and who says so
School district leaders in Columbia Heights and the family’s attorney say armed federal agents took the five‑year‑old and his father from their driveway as the child arrived home from preschool, and that both were transported to a family detention center in Texas — reporting repeated by The New York Times, Reuters, BBC, CBC and others [1] [2] [4] [5] [3].
2. Where the accounts converge: detention, transfer, and community reaction
Major outlets uniformly report the child’s detention and subsequent transfer: Marc Prokosch, the family’s immigration lawyer, told reporters the boy and his father are in a Dilley/San Antonio area family detention facility and that attorneys were trying to contact them; Columbia Heights officials said this boy was one of four students detained in recent weeks, prompting local outrage and protests [1] [2] [4] [3].
3. Where the accounts diverge: ICE’s framing vs. school and family claims
ICE and DHS posted that the father “abandoned” the child while fleeing, and that an officer remained with the boy for his safety — a claim cited by government social posts and press comments — while school officials and witnesses say community members offered to care for the child but were denied and that the boy was effectively used as “bait”; both narratives are present in coverage and have driven the dispute over the propriety of the arrest [6] [7] [2].
4. Legal status and context cited by sources
Reporting indicates the family had applied for asylum after arriving from Ecuador in 2024; Prokosch and school officials emphasized there was no deportation order against them and described the family as asylum seekers, a fact used to underscore critics’ claims that the enforcement action was heavy‑handed [2] [4] [8]. At the same time, administration officials and Vice‑President JD Vance defended enforcement actions during a visit to Minneapolis, reflecting the federal government’s contrasting posture [9] [10].
5. Broader pattern and immediate fallout reported
Journalists and educators framed the incident as part of a larger Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota that has resulted in thousands of arrests and several high‑profile controversies, including the fatal shooting of Renee Good; local leaders including the state governor and Minneapolis mayor publicly criticized the tactics after the child’s detention, and fundraising and public campaigns sprang up to support the family, demonstrating significant civic backlash [2] [3] [6].
6. Limits of available reporting and unanswered questions
Contemporary coverage documents the detention and transfer but differs on motive and procedure: sources disagree about whether the boy was literally “used as bait” or was temporarily in ICE custody purely for safety while officers apprehended his father, and public reporting so far does not provide an independent judicial determination or ICE internal report that resolves that factual dispute; this gap remains in the record provided [7] [6] [2].