What documentation exists about the four Columbia Heights students detained by ICE in January 2026?

1. What official statements and briefings exist from the school district

Columbia Heights Public Schools held a public press conference in which Superintendent Zena Stenvik and school-board leaders announced that four students had been detained by ICE and described each incident in broad strokes—naming ages and circumstances—thereby creating the principal official record relied on by local and national outlets ^{[1] [2]}.

2. Photographic and visual documentation shared by the district

A photograph taken by a bystander showing the five‑year‑old, identified in reporting as Liam Conejo Ramos, in custody with agents was provided to and distributed by the school district, and that image has been cited and republished by multiple outlets as visual evidence of at least one detention ^{[3] [5]}.

3. Media reports and consistent factual elements across outlets

Local and national media have repeatedly reported the same core facts from the district briefing: four students were detained over recent weeks, the detained children included a 5‑year‑old, a 10‑year‑old and two 17‑year‑olds (or two teenagers in separate incidents), and several outlets quote the superintendent and school‑board chair in summarizing the incidents ^{[2] [6] [7] [8]}.

4. Legal representations and claims about transfers and tactics

An immigration lawyer for the family has said the five‑year‑old and his father were transferred to a Texas detention center, and both the district and that counsel alleged the child had been used as “bait” to apprehend relatives—claims which school leaders and the attorney have publicly repeated and which reporters have attributed to those sources ^{[7] [4] [8]}.

5. Eyewitness accounts and corroborating local testimony

Local witnesses and school-board officials provided supplemental details at the press conference and to reporters—examples include assertions that agents were armed and masked, that a teen was taken while en route to school, that in one case agents “pushed their way” into an apartment, and that school‑board chair Mary Granlund and neighbors offered to care for the five‑year‑old but say ICE denied them—these statements form much of the contemporaneous, on-the-ground documentation cited in coverage ^{[2] [9] [1]}.

6. Notable gaps, discrepancies and absence of ICE-originating records in available reporting

None of the provided sources include a public ICE statement confirming details, nor do they cite court filings, detention‑center intake receipts or deportation orders; some local reports contain minor discrepancies in chronology and wording (for example differing ways of describing the apartments or the sequence of events), and one local piece includes an atypical line referencing a named individual that does not appear elsewhere, underscoring the unevenness of available documentation and the lack of direct federal records in the assembled reporting ^{[10] [2]}.

7. What this body of documentation can and cannot establish

Taken together, the school district’s press conference, attorneys’ statements, the bystander photo and consistent media accounts establish that Columbia Heights officials publicly reported four student detentions—including a named five‑year‑old—and that advocates and family counsel assert transfers and contested ICE tactics; however, without ICE statements, detention‑center records or court documents in the available reporting, independent verification of legal status, exact charges or formal agency rationale is absent from the documented record presented here ^{[1] [7] [3] [2]}.