Minnesota gears up for more protests against ICE

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minnesota — A vast network of labor unions, progressive organizations and clergy has been urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and stores on Friday to protest against immigration enforcement in the state.

"We really, really want ICE to leave Minnesota, and they're not going to leave Minnesota unless there's a ton of pressure on them," said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, a group that is mobilizing. "They shouldn't be roaming any streets in our country just the way they are now."

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul have seen daily protests since Renee Good was fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during an operation on Jan 7. The federal law enforcement officers have surged in the area for weeks and have repeatedly squared off with community members and activists who track their movements online and on the streets.

At least four children, including a five-year-old, from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, have been detained, according to school officials and a lawyer for the family, who challenged the government narrative of the five-year-old's detention put forward by Vice-President JD Vance.

The boy and his father from Ecuador — both in the country legally as asylum applicants — were whisked off to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, said Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family who is attempting to secure their release.

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, told a news conference that armed and masked ICE officers had apprehended four students as of this week, listing two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos.

"ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids," Stenvik said.

"The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children."

The Department of Homeland Security said Liam's father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide details.

Liam, wearing a blue hat and a Spider-Man backpack, watched as masked agents took his father from the driveway of their home after the two returned from preschool on Tuesday, according to witnesses.

Officers then attempted to use the boy as bait to lure his mother out of the house, at least two witnesses said. Vance told a news conference on Thursday that immigration officers were pursuing Liam's father, who ran away, leaving officers no choice but to take the abandoned boy. "What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien?" Vance told a news conference during a visit to Minneapolis to show support for ICE.

However, school officials, an adult from the family home and neighbors all offered to take the boy, only to be denied by ICE officials, according to witnesses, including Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights school board. Granlund said school officials are authorized to take custody of a child in the absence of a parent.