A 5-year-old boy was detained by ICE officials after pre-school, sparking outrage.
Liam Conejo Ramos was pictured in a bright blue bunny hat, Spider-Man backpack strapped to his shoulders, and a terrified look on his face.
Directly behind him, stands a full-grown man, dressed head-to-foot in black, military-style clothing, his face covered with a mask, gripping the boy’s backpack to prevent escape.
Liam is now one of more than roughly 68,000 people detained by ICE agents raiding American neighbourhoods in search of those deemed a danger to the US.
The Trump administration has tried to justify the huge presence of ICE agents in Minnesota by claiming officers are detaining immigrants convicted of violent crimes.
So, people are asking what violent crime 5-year-old Liam has committed to be picked up and detained by ICE.
The scene grows more distressing as the anonymous ICE agent escorts the child towards a waiting vehicle.
n the background, desperate pleas for his release go unheard.
The harrowing scene played out in Columbia Heights, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It is the same city where mother-of-three Renee Good was shot de@d by an ICE officer.
An emotional Zena Stenvik, the local schools superintendent, was already reeling from the capture of three other students in the last month, when she gave a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
The Columbia Heights Public Schools described the bleak episode that led to the “kind and loving” boy’s detention.
Stenvik said Ramos had just arrived home from preschool when he and his father, named Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were apprehended in their driveway.
Another adult living in the home “begged” agents to let him care for Liam rather than allow him to fall into the hands of US authorities.
The agent then led the boy to his front door and told him to knock on the door.
The idea was to “see if anyone else was home – essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, the superintendent said in a statement.
The boy’s middle school-aged brother is said to have returned home to find his father and younger brother missing. The boys’ mother was not detained by ICE.
Having seen images of children kept in cages in 2018, Stenvik called for “justice” for little Liam.
The crowds of people locked up by ICE climbed to record numbers, according to data published by the department last week.
The data showed that, as of Thursday Jan. 15, ICE was holding roughly 73,000 individuals, with many now facing deportation.
