Immigration Agents Detain 5-Year-Old Boy in Minnesota, Prompting Outrage
ICE’s brief detention of a 5-year-old boy in Minneapolis this week has intensified scrutiny of immigration enforcement practices and renewed questions about how often children are taken into custody when their parents are arrested.
Photos circulating in the Twin Cities showed the young boy wearing a small backpack and a light blue stocking cap while surrounded by immigration agents. The images quickly sparked outrage and speculation online, with some critics accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement of using children as leverage to apprehend parents suspected of immigration violations.
Federal authorities pushed back against that characterization on Thursday, saying the child was not targeted. According to officials, the boy was taken into ICE custody after his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, ran from officers who were attempting to arrest him, leaving the child behind.
The incident highlights a broader reality of immigration enforcement under President Trump, as a growing number of children — potentially numbering in the hundreds — have ended up in family detention centers alongside their parents amid stepped-up deportation efforts. That population includes families who are in the midst of seeking asylum.
ICE has long maintained that when parents are detained, their children are also taken into custody so families are not separated. Expanding space for family detention ahead of deportations has been a stated priority of Trump’s second administration.
By Thursday, Arias, an Ecuadorian national, and his son were reunited and being held together at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.
The images from Minneapolis drew sharp criticism from local officials, especially when contrasted with Trump’s comments this week that immigration authorities in Minnesota are arresting the “worst of the worst” criminals.
“This family is following U.S. legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation,” local school superintendent Zena Stenvik said Wednesday at a news conference, condemning the arrest of Arias and the detention of his child.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin disputed claims that ICE had singled out a minor, saying in a statement that “ICE did not target a child,” but instead sought to arrest the boy’s father, “who was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.”
McLaughlin did not answer follow-up questions about whether Arias had received a court notice to appear or had a final removal order. Immigrants pursuing what is known as an affirmative asylum claim are typically not held in detention during that process.
She added that when a parent is taken into custody, agents ask whether the parent wishes to be deported together with their children or prefers that ICE place the children with a designated safe individual.
“This is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement,” McLaughlin said.
In some instances, U.S. citizen children have been deported along with parents who lack legal status.
Vice President Vance echoed the administration’s position during a visit to Minnesota on Thursday, defending the detention of parents — and their children — during immigration arrests.
“If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who violate the laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement,” he said.
Precise figures on how many children are currently held in family detention are not publicly available, as ICE data does not break out those numbers.
At the Dilley facility, an average of roughly 700 people are held at any given time, with an average stay of about 20 days. Another family detention center in Karnes County, Texas, holds about 1,100 detainees on average, with typical stays lasting around 49 days, according to ICE data from late December.
Following earlier court challenges, the federal government agreed not to detain minors — whether with their parents or alone — for more than 20 days.
“All of the research shows that the actions that the administration is doing is very bad for children’s health and children’s well-being,” said Joanna Dreby, a sociologist who has written extensively about how immigration enforcement affects children.
“I think about all the kids in that little boy’s classroom and his school,” Dreby said. “All of the kids in that elementary school are going to be very, very afraid — U.S. citizen kids as well.”
{Matzav.com}