US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota on Tuesday as he returned home from school, and at least three other kids from the same school district this month. Liam is obviously not a violent criminal, a rhetoric that the Trump administration has used to justify the presence of ICE agents.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public Schools district, said at a news conference, according to The Washington Post. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Via The Guardian:
Liam and his father had just arrived home when they were detained, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent, who said she drove to the home when she learned of the detentions.
When she arrived, Stenvik said the father’s car was still running, and the father and son had already been apprehended. An agent had taken Liam out of the car, led the boy to his front doo,r 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 five-year-old as bait”, the superintendent said in a statement.
