The detention of a five-year-old child in Minnesota has sparked widespread outrage across the United States, with former Vice President Kamala Harris strongly criticising the Donald Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadorean national, was taken into custody along with his parents, who are currently seeking asylum in the US. The incident occurred on Tuesday and has drawn sharp reactions after disturbing visuals surfaced online.
Videos circulating on social media showed the visibly frightened child being seized by masked, armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and placed into an SUV before being driven away. According to reports, Liam was later transferred to an immigration detention facility in Texas. The images and accounts of the incident triggered public anger, particularly because of the boy’s age and the circumstances under which he was detained.
Kamala Harris condemned the episode in strong terms, saying the child should never have been treated in this manner. She described Liam as “just a baby” and said he belonged at home with his family, not in a detention centre. Harris accused ICE of using the child as leverage during the operation and expressed deep outrage, urging the public to share in her condemnation of the incident.
Witnesses said Liam was detained shortly after returning home from preschool with his father. Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights school board, told Reuters that ICE agents appeared to be using the child to pressure his mother into coming out of the house. According to Granlund, Liam’s father had warned his wife to stay inside, possibly to avoid being detained herself. She added that school officials, neighbours and an adult from the family’s home repeatedly offered to take custody of the child, but ICE agents refused all such requests.
The US Department of Homeland Security rejected claims that the child was deliberately targeted. Officials instead alleged that Liam’s father attempted to flee on foot and “abandoned the child” during the arrest. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that one ICE officer stayed with the child to ensure his safety while others pursued the father. She added that parents in such situations are typically given a choice to be removed together with their children or arrange for the child to be placed with someone they trust.
Vice President JD Vance also defended the actions of ICE, repeating the claim that the child’s father ran away and left his son behind. Speaking at a press conference in Minneapolis, Vance argued that officers could not simply leave a young child unattended in cold conditions and questioned whether authorities were expected to ignore immigration violations. His remarks further fuelled the debate over the administration’s aggressive immigration policies and their human impact.
