U.S. immigration authorities have detained at least four children this month, including a 5-year-old from a Minneapolis-area school district, school district officials said yesterday.
The report comes amid concerns about the scale and tactics of federal agents as part of President Donald Trump's administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, which has seen 3.000 officers deployed to Minnesota's largest city. Trump has described the crackdown as a fight to remove violent criminals from the United States.
“Why bring a five-year-old child into custody?” said Zena Stanwick, superintendent of the Columbia Heights School District, at a news conference Wednesday. “You can’t tell me this child is going to be characterized as a violent criminal.”
US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin denied on Tuesday that the child was targeted. "ICE did NOT target a child," she said in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on Tuesday to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who it said was in the country illegally. When agents approached, Conejo Arias fled, leaving the child behind, it added.
"For the safety of the child, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while other officers arrested Conejo Arias," McLaughlin said in a statement.
She said parents who are targeted by ICE operations are asked whether they want to be deported along with their children or have the children placed with a person the parents designate.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not comment on the school district's claim that other children were also detained in ICE operations.
At a press conference, Stanwick said that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken with his father in the driveway of his home after being picked up from daycare on Tuesday.
On the same day, she added, a 17-year-old high school student was taken away by armed and masked agents on his way to school. His parents were not present at the time, she said.
Two weeks ago, she said, a 10-year-old girl was taken by ICE agents while she was attending elementary school, and she and her mother remain in a detention center in Texas. Last week, she said, a 17-year-old high school student was taken by ICE agents along with her mother at their apartment.
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