Federal immigration officers have detained at least four children from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights in recent weeks, including a five-year-old boy taken from his driveway after returning from preschool, prompting sharp criticism from school officials, local leaders and the family’s lawyer, who dispute the government’s version of events.

The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, was taken Tuesday along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, and transported to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, according to Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik and the family’s attorney, Marc Prokosch.

School officials said Liam was the fourth student from the district to be detained by immigration officers, after a 10-year-old and two 17-year-olds were also taken.

Federal agents took Liam from a running car in the family’s driveway, Stenvik told reporters, adding that officers instructed the child to knock on the door of his home to see if anyone else was inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”

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

The family arrived in the United States in 2024 and has an active asylum case, with no order to leave the country, Stenvik said. Prokosch said both the boy and his father are asylum applicants and were awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.

The Department of Homeland Security rejected the claim that the child was targeted. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child” and said officers were arresting the father, whom she described as an Ecuadorean national in the U.S. illegally. She said the father fled on foot, “abandoning his child.”

“For the child's safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” McLaughlin said, adding that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing.

School officials and witnesses disputed that account, saying another adult who lives at the home, school officials and neighbors all offered to take custody of Liam but were refused.

Offers to take custody ignored, witnesses say

Stenvik said another adult from the home was outside when the father and son were taken, but agents would not leave the child with that person. Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights school board, said she told agents she would take the boy before they left.

Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who lives nearby, said she saw a neighbor present documents authorizing them to care for Liam on behalf of the parents, but agents ignored them.

“The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered, and honestly, at the end of the day, children should be in school with their classmates,” Granlund said.

Witnesses described masked officers placing the child, who was wearing a blue hat and a Spider-Man backpack, into the back seat of a black SUV and driving away.

“I can't imagine what was going through Liam's mind, but I can tell you what I saw on his face. He was frozen and paralyzed,” James said. “He was not crying, but he looked so scared.”

Prokosch said he assumes Liam and his father are being held together in a family holding cell but that lawyers have not had “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.

Vance comments, raids intensify

Vice President JD Vance, who met Minneapolis leaders on Thursday, said he had heard the “terrible story” but later learned the boy was detained, not arrested.

“Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” Vance said, noting that he is the parent of a five-year-old.

He was not asked why officers allegedly refused to leave the child with another adult at the home.

The detentions come amid stepped-up immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Greg Bovino, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official, said officers have made about 3,000 arrests in the state over the past six weeks as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

School officials said armed and masked officers have been seen circling schools, following buses and entering school parking lots.

“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids,” Stenvik said, adding that the activity is causing “trauma.”

“The onslaught of ice activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children,” she said.

Attendance drops, concerns over detention conditions

Columbia Heights Public Schools, which serves about 3,400 students from pre-K to 12th grade, said attendance has dropped sharply over the past two weeks, including one day when about one-third of students were absent.

Ella Sullivan, Liam’s teacher, described him as “kind and loving.”

“His classmates miss him,” she said. “And all I want is for him to be safe and back here.”

Advocates also raised concerns about conditions at the Dilley detention facility. Leecia Welch, chief legal counselor at Children’s Rights, said families report children there are malnourished and seriously ill.

“The number of children had skyrocketed and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said, adding, “Nearly every child we spoke to was sick.”