US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained a five-year-old boy on Tuesday during an immigration enforcement operation, Minnesota school officials and the family's lawyer have said.


Pre-schooler Liam Ramos was with his father - named by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias - when Conejo Arias was approached by agents on his driveway.


In a statement posted on X, the DHS said ICE did NOT target a child, but was conducting an operation against his father, an illegal alien who abandoned his son when approached.


Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights Public Schools superintendent, asked: Why detain a five-year-old? You can't tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.


In a post on X, ICE denied the child had been detained, stating: A criminal illegal alien ABANDONED his child as he fled from ICE officers, and our officers ensured the child was kept SAFE in the bitter cold. ICE made multiple attempts to get the family inside the house to take custody of the child. They refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.


DHS did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment.


Photos provided to the BBC by the school district show a boy, identified as Liam Ramos, wearing a bunny-shaped winter hat, standing outside as an officer holds on to his backpack. The Columbia Heights Public Schools authority described these as bystander photos.


Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, informed that Liam and his father were being held at a detention centre in San Antonio, Texas, and attorneys were trying to contact them. Prokosch stated that the boy and his father had entered the US in 2024 from Ecuador to seek asylum, saying, This family was not eluding ICE in any way; they were following all the established protocols.


School officials said an agent asked the child to knock on the door of the home to see if anyone else was there. The boy had just arrived home from pre-school at the time, Stenvik noted. Another adult in the house requested to take the child inside but was reportedly refused.


School board member Mary Granlund mentioned being present and offering to take Liam but was rebuffed. US Vice-President JD Vance remarked that ICE had no choice since the father ran. He argued, Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?


Stenvik noted that ICE had recently detained a total of four students in her school district, which is causing significant distress within the community.


The DHS has communicated that it targets the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens for arrests to restore public safety. This operation, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, has ignited protests across Minneapolis and Saint Paul in response to worsening immigration enforcement practices, further exacerbated by a recent incident involving a fatal shooting of a woman by law enforcement.