Did ICE use a 5-year-old boy as ‘bait’ to draw family members out for detention in Minnesota? DHS responds

Federal immigration agents detained a five-year-old Minnesota schoolboy and allegedly used him to lure adults out of his home.This made school officials worried about how children are being caught in aggressive enforcement operations near schools.Columbia Heights Public Schools superintendent Zena Stenvik said masked ICE agents detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos on Tuesday as he arrived home from school with his father. The agents then took the child from the car and instructed him to knock on his home’s door to check if anyone else was inside.

“Why detain a 5-year-old? You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Stenvik told reporters on Wednesday.She said another adult at the home begged agents to let him take care of the child, but was refused. She said the ICE agents ordered the 5-year-old to do certain things: “The agent took the child out of the still-running car, led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”