Live updates: ‘ICE out of Minnesota’ strike, economic boycott planned in protest as Trump’s immigration crackdown fuels tensions

A top ICE official denies allegations from a Minneapolis school that the 5–year-old son of an asylum seeker was used as bait to capture his father.

“(Adrian Alexander) Conejo Arias was not walking to school with the child, and we did not target the child,” said Marcos Charles, executive assistant director of Enforcement and Removal Operations.

ICE officials say the 5-year-old, Liam Conejo Ramos, seen being loaded into a federal vehicle while wearing a backpack and blue beanie with bunny ears, had been abandoned by his father when he saw agents approaching.

“(Agents) cared for him, took him to get something to eat from a drive-thru restaurant and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of,” Charles said.

Columbia Heights school superintendent Zena Stenvik said earlier this week agents took the child to his home to knock and try to draw other members of the family out.

Charles countered, saying the agents were trying to reunite Ramos with other family members.

“Tragically when we approached the door of his residence, people inside refused to take him in and open the door,” he said.

The father eventually asked to have Liam stay with him, Charles said. They are now at South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to family attorney Marc Prokosch.

“We do everything in our power not to separate families,” said Charles.