U.S. Vice President JD Vance spoke publicly after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained a five-year-old boy in Minneapolis, an incident that has sparked outrage across the city.
The child, identified as preschool student Liam Ramos, was taken into custody on Tuesday, January 20, as he was returning home from school with his father.
Highlights
- ICE detained five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father during a home arrest, sparking outrage in Minneapolis and accusations of using the child as bait.
- JD Vance defended ICE’s actions, blaming local leaders and claiming the father fled, but the child's lawyer denied these claims and affirmed legal asylum status.
- At least four children from the Minneapolis school district have recently been detained by ICE amid intensified local enforcement activities.
- Minneapolis officials, including Mayor Frey and Governor Walz, criticized federal ICE tactics, calling for targeted enforcement over aggressive confrontations.
According to Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik, ICE agents apprehended both the child and his father outside their home while the father’s car was still running.
JD Vance spoke publicly after a five-year-old boy was detained by ICE in Minneapolis
Image credits: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Stenvik alleged that an ICE agent also took Liam Ramos to the front door of his house, and asked to be let in, “in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a five-year-old as bait.”
Liam is one of at least four children from the same Minneapolis-area school district who have been reportedly detained by ICE in recent weeks.
ICE activity in Minneapolis intensified in January, with reports of agents operating in neighborhoods, near schools, and around school buses.
Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed an American citizen, Renee Nicole Good, causing uproar in the country, and especially in the city.
Stenvik accused ICE officers of “roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our kids.”
Image credits: Courtesy of Columbia Heights Public Schools
The father and son reportedly have an active asylum case and have not been ordered to leave the country.
During a visit to Minneapolis, Vance addressed the situation and placed responsibility for the unrest on local leadership rather than federal agents.
“When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” Vance alleged. “So the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
The child’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, denied Vance’s claim. “This family was not eluding ICE in any way,” he said.
“They were following all the established protocols, pursuing their claim for asylum, showing up for their court hearings, and posed no safety, no flight risk, and never should have been detained.”
Image credits: Courtesy of Columbia Heights Public Schools
He also denied Vance’s allegation that the family members were “illegal aliens.”
“They came properly, they came legally, and they were pursuing a legal pathway,” Prokosch said.
Vance also said, “If the argument is that you can't arrest people who have violated our laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
ICE alleged that the child's father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was an illegal alien from Ecuador who had been let into the country by former President Joe Biden.
The boy’s lawyer said the family was in the country legally
Image credits: Jim Watson/Getty Images
“As agents approached the driver Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot - abandoning his child,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote on X, further claiming, “For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with the past administration’s immigration enforcement,” they said.
Vance also met with ICE agents in Minneapolis, where he blamed “far-left people” along with state and local law enforcement officials for the chaos unfolding in the state.
Image credits: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in turn, accused the federal government, saying, “Take the show of force off the streets and partner with the state on targeted enforcement of violent offenders instead of random, aggressive confrontation.”
At the meeting, to which the mayor of the city and the Minneapolis police chief were reportedly not invited, Vance speculated that local authorities were “being told by somebody not to cooperate at all” with the federal agents.
“What kind of a person tells their local police, ‘Don’t protect somebody if they’re being assaulted by a rioter.’ It’s crazy. And it’s got to stop,” Vance said, adding that he does not need Waltz or Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to agree with him.
Image credits: Jerry Holt/Getty Images
“What I do need them to do is empower their local officials to help our federal officials out in a way that this can be a little bit less chaotic and it can be a little more targeted,” Vance said.
Earlier this month, Frey told ICE agents to “get the f**k out” of Minneapolis.
Responding to Vance’s latest statement, Frey said, “I get that they've got a messaging challenge here, and it’s predominantly because anyone can see with their own two eyes what’s going on.
"You can’t say with a straight face that pulling citizens off the street or going into a school is a targeted action when clearly it’s not.”