ICE Agents Grab Five-Year-Old Boy, Use Him ‘As Bait To Knock On the Door’ To Find Immigrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took a five-year-old boy and his father, who had just arrived home from the child’s school on Tuesday.

Citing school officials in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, KARE-TV in Minneapolis identified the boy as Liam Ramos. Family members told the station that they did not know where the two were for “nearly 24 hours.” A subsequent report by KARE said the family’s lawyer said the child is being held “potentially with his father at a detention facility in Texas.”

The lawyer said after Ramos and his father were detained in their driveway after returning from the child’s school, agents used Liam “as bait to knock on the door and ask to be let in to see if anyone else was at home.”

School officials said a total of four students have been detained by immigration agents in recent weeks. At least one other student is being held in Texas, and the district is “working to locate two other students who were taken by ICE this week.” ICE agents also arrested a 17-year-old on Tuesday when the student’s parents were not present.

The Trump administration has sent 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol officers to Minnesota, where this month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good as she tried to drive away from agents.

Across the country, immigration agents have deported children who are U.S. citizens, and conducted operations at elementary schools, churches, and hospitals.

Last week, ICE agents dined at a Mexican restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota, before arresting three of its employees later that evening.

“The arrest happened around 8:30 p.m. near a Lutheran church and Willmar Middle School as agents followed the workers after they closed up for the night,” The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. “A handful of bystanders blew whistles and shouted at agents as they detained the people.”

Watch above via KARE.

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