Federal agents detained a 5-year-old Minnesota boy and then used him as “bait”—directing the kindergartner to knock on his family’s front door to see if anyone else was inside, according to his school district superintendent and family lawyer.
Liam Conejo Ramos, a student at Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights, was grabbed by masked ICE thugs in his own driveway on Tuesday as he returned home from school with his father. When another adult in the home begged agents to let him care for the child, they refused.
“Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running car, led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters Wednesday.
THE DETAILS: Agents took Liam and his father away and shipped them to Texas. The family has an active asylum case with no deportation orders—Stenvik says she’s seen the legal paperwork herself. Marc Prokosch, the family’s lawyer, confirmed the family has been doing “every step of their immigration process” exactly as asked.
“This is just… cruelty,” Prokosch said. He’s exploring filing a habeas corpus petition to get Liam out, though he’d have to file it in Texas now.
Asked if detaining a 5-year-old is illegal, Prokosch gave a grim answer: “Probably not, and that’s what’s going to make my job really difficult. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s moral.”
BUT BUT BUT: This isn’t an isolated incident. Columbia Heights has had four students detained in just two weeks.
A 10-year-old girl was snatched with her mother on her way to school—by the end of that school day, they were already in a Texas detention center. A 17-year-old was grabbed after agents “pushed their way into an apartment.” Another student was taken while heading to class on Tuesday.
“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our children,” Stenvik said. “The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered.”
OF COURSE: The terror is spreading. Nearly a third of students in Columbia Heights have stayed home out of fear. Other Twin Cities districts report absenteeism rates between 20 and 40 percent. Minneapolis and St. Paul have canceled classes to transition students to virtual learning.
Liam’s teacher, Ella Sullivan, was in tears at the announcement. “He’s a bright young student, and he’s so kind and loving, and his classmates miss him, and all I want is for him to be safe and back here.”
WHY IT MATTERS: We’re watching armed federal agents use a kindergartner as a tool to flush out his own family. A child whose family followed every rule, filed every paper, did everything right. “Why detain a 5-year-old?” Stenvik asked. “You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
She’s right. This isn’t about safety. It’s about cruelty as policy.