US immigration authorities have detained at least four children, including a five-year-old, from a Minneapolis-area school district this month, school officials said Thursday, raising concerns about the reach and methods of federal enforcement under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The operation has included the deployment of about 3,000 officers to Minnesota’s largest city, news agency Reuters reported, adding that Trump has described the crackdown as a battle to get violent criminals out of the US.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said at a news conference. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Trump administration rejects claim
The Department of Homeland Security, however, rejected claims that a child was targeted.
“ICE did NOT target a child,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Thursday. She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers carried out an operation Tuesday to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who was in the country illegally. As agents approached, Conejo Arias fled, leaving his child behind, she said.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
She added that parents targeted in ICE operations are asked whether they want to be removed with their children or have them placed with someone designated by the parents.
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DHS did not address the school district’s claim that other children had also been detained. At the news conference, Stenvik said Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, was taken with his father from their driveway Tuesday after being picked up from preschool.
She said the same day, a 17-year-old high school student was detained by armed and masked agents while on the way to school, with no parents present.
Stenvik said two weeks earlier, a 10-year-old girl was detained by ICE agents on her way to elementary school and remains in a Texas detention centre with her mother. She also said last week, a 17-year-old high school student was detained along with her mother at their apartment by ICE agents.
