MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The detention of a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy with his father outside their Minnesota home has become the latest lightning rod for U.S. immigration divisions under the Trump administration. The versions given by government officials and the family’s lawyer and neighbors offer conflicting accounts of whether the parents were given adequate opportunity to leave the child with someone else.
Neighbors and school officials say federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait,” telling him to knock on his door so his mother would answer.
The Department of Homeland Security calls this account of events an “abject lie.” The father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, is said to have fled on foot and left the boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, in a vehicle running in the driveway.
The dueling narratives come just two weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that witnesses also saw 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 the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio.
Federal officials say the father was in the U.S. illegally, without providing details. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said he came illegally in December 2024.
The family’s attorney said he has a pending asylum application that allows him to remain in the country.
Both can be true. The government may have tried to deport him after determining he entered illegally, but he may have exercised his 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 Dec. 17, 2024, and is assigned to immigration court at the Dilley Detention Center.
Here’s what various officials, lawyers and others are saying about the case:
School officials say ICE used boy as ‘bait’
Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters that officers instructed the boy to knock on the door of 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 agents will not leave Liam with other adults.
A photo of the boy wearing a Spider-Man helmet and backpack has been widely circulated on social media, sparking strong reactions.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” asked the inspector. “You can’t tell me this kid is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Other adults at the scene wanted to take care of 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 care for Liam on behalf of the parents.
Mary Granlund, the school board president for Columbia Heights, said she told agents she could take care of him, too.
ICE denies what school officials and neighbors said
“ICE did NOT target, arrest, 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 hard to get the mother to take custody of the child. “The officers actually assured her that she would NOT be taken into custody.”
The officers, she said, “respected the father’s wish to keep the child with him.”
Bovino and ICE officials criticize media coverage
In 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 associate executive director of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, charged the father with “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.” He told reporters that one officer stayed with the child while others arrested the father. He said his officers 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 and open the door… Fortunately, Conejo Arias eventually asked that his child stay with him,” Charles said.
And Charles said he doesn’t know what happened to the baby’s mother.
Where are father and son now?
They are in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families have reported that the children are malnourished, sick and suffering from prolonged detention. Conditions there are worse than ever, said Leecia Welch, chief legal adviser at Children’s Rights, who visited the facility last week.
“The number of children has skyrocketed and a significant number of children have been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said. In December, the administration acknowledged that approximately 400 children faced prolonged detention.
“Almost every kid I talked to was sick,” Welch said.
Bovino pointed out that when American citizens anywhere in the country are arrested and jailed by local police, they are separated from their children.
“I challenge any other law enforcement agency across the country to show me the fantastic care that ICE and the US Border Patrol provide to children,” Bovino said.
If Liam hadn’t been with his father, Bovino said, he could have ended up in the custody of social services without a parent.
Charles said people at 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 attorney could not be reached
The family’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, said Thursday that he assumed Liam and his father were in a family holding cell, but that he had no direct contact with them.
“We are looking at our legal options to see if we can get them released either through legal mechanisms or through moral pressure,” he told a news conference on Thursday.
On Friday, Prokosch’s office said he was unavailable for comment.
What is the Trump administration’s policy on child detention?
The child’s immigration status can be a critical factor, and it is unclear whether the 5-year-old is in the United States legally. If he was not, 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 he was not a natural-born US citizen.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly said that parents of US-born children have a choice to take their children with them when they are 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 that child with a relative or another spouse,” Homan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” last year.
The Trump administration last July issued a “Detainee Parent Directive” stating that if minor children are encountered during ICE enforcement actions, ICE “should in no event take custody of the children or transport them.” The directive includes exemptions for cases where people could lose their immigration status.
The directive says ICE should allow parents and guardians to make alternative childcare arrangements before detention.
It does not specify what happens when parents say they want their child to stay with them.
“If a parent is arrested while with their child, the government is not obligated to arrest the child, regardless of the child’s immigration status,” said Neha Desai, director general of Human Rights and Child Dignity at the National Youth Law Center. “When ICE detains a parent, its own policy requires it to allow time for child care arrangements to be made.”
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AP reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this story.