Who is Liam Ramos? The 5-year-old kid at the centre of a growing ICE detention controversy

Five-year-old Liam Ramos, a preschool student from Minnesota, whose detention during an ICE operation has sparked outrage.

A five-year-old preschooler from suburban Minnesota has become the latest face of an intensifying immigration crackdown in the US, after he was detained by federal agents along with his father and taken more than 1,000 miles away to a facility in Texas. The incident has rattled his school district and alarmed immigrant communities.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a kindergarten student at Columbia Heights Public Schools near Minneapolis, was returning home from preschool on Tuesday afternoon when federal immigration agents intercepted the car in his family’s driveway. According to school officials and the family’s lawyer, the child was taken into custody along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.

Superintendent Zena Stenvik said agents removed the boy from the vehicle and then instructed him to knock on the door of his home to check if anyone else was inside. She described the act as “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” triggering widespread condemnation from educators and civil rights advocates.

Stenvik said the family has an active asylum application and has not received any deportation order. “Why detain a 5-year-old?” she asked during a press conference. “You cannot tell me this child is a threat.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pushed back strongly against that characterisation. In a statement, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said immigration officers did not target the child. According to DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting a targeted operation to arrest Liam’s father, whom the department describes as “an illegal alien from Ecuador.”

DHS claims that when agents approached, the father fled on foot, “abandoning his child.” Officers stayed with the boy for his safety before apprehending the father, the statement said. ICE maintains that parents are given the option to remain with their children during removal proceedings or to designate a safe guardian. DHS also promoted its voluntary departure programme, which offers flights and financial assistance through the CBP Home app.

However, the family’s lawyers and community members dispute the government’s version, saying Liam and his father arrived in the US in 2024 and are legally pursuing asylum.

The incident has heightened anxiety in Columbia Heights, a school district of about 3,400 students, the majority from immigrant families. Liam is the fourth student from the district detained by ICE in recent weeks, Stenvik said. A 17-year-old was taken while heading to school earlier this week, while a 10-year-old and another teenager were also detained recently.

The impact is already visible. School attendance has dropped sharply over the past two weeks, with one day seeing nearly a third of students absent as parents keep children home out of fear.

 (With inputs from Associated Press)