What Trump officials and immigration lawyers say about ICE detaining a 5-year-old

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The detention of a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy with his father outside their home in Minnesota has become the latest lightning rod for America’s divisions on immigration under the Trump administration. Versions offered by government officials and the family’s attorney and neighbors offer contradictory versions of whether the parents were given adequate opportunity to leave the child with someone else.

Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer.

The Department of Homeland Security calls that description of events an “abject lie.” It says the father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot and left the boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, in a running vehicle in their driveway.

The dueling narratives come just two weeks after the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that witnesses also viewed as a blatant abuse of power — and that the government defended as a legitimate act of self-defense.

The father and son are now at family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio.

Federal officials say the father was in the U.S. illegally, without offering details. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said he came illegally in December 2024.

The family’s attorney said he had a pending asylum claim allowing him to stay in the country.

Both can be true. The government may have tried deporting him after determining he entered illegally but he may have exercised a legal right to seek asylum, putting his removal on hold until a judge rules on his claim.

An online court summary shows the case was filed on Dec. 17, 2024, and is assigned to the immigration court inside the Dilley detention center.

Here’s a look at what various officials, lawyers and others are saying about the case:

School officials say ICE used the boy as ‘bait’

Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters that the officers instructed the boy to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.

The father told the child’s mother, who was inside, not to open the door, Stenvik said.

School officials said the agents wouldn’t leave Liam with other adults.

A photo of the boy wearing a beanie and a Spiderman backpack has circulated widely on social media, sparking strong reactions.

“Why detain a 5-year-old?” the superintendent asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”

Other adults at the scene wanted to care for the boy

School officials said other adults at the scene offered to care for the boy but were ignored by agents, including a neighbor who said they had papers authorizing her to take care of Liam on behalf of the parents.

Mary Granlund, school board chair for Columbia Heights, said she told agents that she also could take care of him.

ICE denies what school officials and neighbors said

“ICE did NOT target, arrest a child or use a child as ‘bait,’” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. “ICE law enforcement officers were the only people primarily concerned with the welfare of this child. ”

McLaughlin said the child was abandoned and officers tried extensively to get the mother to take custody of the child. “Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken her into custody.”

The officers, she said, “abided by the father’s wishes to keep the child with him.”

Bovino and ICE officials criticize media coverage

At a news conference Friday, Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino criticized what he called the “false media narrative” about the case.

Marcos Charles, acting executive associate director of ICE enforcement and removal operations, faulted the father for “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.” He told reporters one officer stayed with the child while others arrested the father. He said his officers then got food for the boy, and “did everything they could to reunite him with his family.”

“Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in and open the door. … Fortunately, Conejo Arias eventually requested that his child stay with him,” Charles said.

And Charles said he didn’t know what had become of the child’s mother.

Where are the father and son now?

They’re at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families have reported that children are malnourished, ill and suffering from prolonged detention. Conditions there are worse than ever, said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at Children’s Rights, who visited the facility last week.

“The number of children had skyrocketed and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said. The administration in December acknowledged that about 400 children had faced extended detention.

“Nearly every child we spoke to was sick,” Welch said.

Bovino pointed out that when U.S. citizens anywhere in the country are arrested and jailed by their local police, they get separated from their children.

“I challenge any other law enforcement agency anywhere nationwide to show me the fantastic care that ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol provide children,” Bovino said.

If Liam wasn’t with his father, Bovino said, he could have ended up in the custody of social services without a parent instead.

Charles said people at the family centers “get top-notch care. They have medical care. The food is good. They have learning services. They have church services available. They have recreation.”

The family’s lawyer was unable to reach them

The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said Thursday that he assumed Liam and his father were in a family holding cell but that he did not have direct contact with them.

“We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or through moral pressure,” he said at a news conference Thursday.

On Friday, Prokosch’s office said he was unavailable to comment.

What is the Trump administration’s policy on detaining children?

The child’s immigration status may be a critical factor, and it is unclear if the 5-year-old was legally in the United States. If he wasn’t, he may be subject to deportation with one or both parents. Charles, the ICE official, said Friday that the family entered the United States together, suggesting the he was not a U.S.-born citizen.

Trump border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly said parents of U.S.-born children have a choice to take their children with them when deported or leave them with someone else.

“This is parenting 101. You can decide to take that child with you or you can decide to leave the child with a relative or another spouse,” Homan said last year on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The Trump administration last July issued a “Detained Parents Directive” that if minor children are encountered during ICE enforcement actions, ICE “should under no circumstances take custody of children or transport them.” The directive includes exemptions for when people could lose their immigration status.

The directive says that ICE should allow parents and guardians to make alternate care arrangements for the children before their detention.

It does not specify what happens when the parents say that they want their child to stay with them.

“If a parent is arrested while with their child, the government is not required to arrest the child, regardless of the child’s immigration status,” said Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law. “When ICE detains a parent, its own policy requires them to allow time for arrangements to be made for the child’s care.”

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AP reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this story.