What Crime Could You Have Committed... 5-Year-Old Detained and Used as 'Bait'? U.S. Immigration Authorities Spark Controversy Again

Vice President JD Vance Claims "We Were Protecting the Child"

As the Donald Trump administration in the United States continues its hardline immigration crackdown, controversy has erupted after immigration authorities detained a 5-year-old child in Minnesota.

On the 20th (local time), 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who attends the Valleyview Elementary School affiliated kindergarten in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, stands with his bag held by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Photo by AP Yonhap News

On the 23rd (local time), foreign media including the Associated Press reported that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, originally from Ecuador, was detained by immigration authorities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after returning home from kindergarten on the 20th. At the time, Liam's father was also apprehended and is reportedly being transferred to a detention center in Texas.

The incident has sparked widespread controversy due to allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers used the child, Liam, as bait to arrest his family. Before officially detaining Liam, ICE officers allegedly instructed him to knock on the front door of his home to check if anyone else was inside.

JD Vance, the Vice President who visited Minnesota, confirmed Liam’s detention but argued that ICE officers were protecting Liam because his father attempted to escape during the operation. However, Liam and his family’s attorney asserted that they are not undocumented immigrants, as they applied for asylum in December 2024 and are currently undergoing the process to obtain asylum status.

On the same day, foreign media reported that a recently revealed internal ICE memo stated that agents could forcibly enter people’s residences without a judge-issued warrant. While it remains unclear how widely this directive has been applied in actual operations, the media reported witnessing an incident on January 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where heavily armed ICE officers, carrying only administrative warrants, broke down the front door of a Liberian man’s home at gunpoint.

On the 23rd (local time), protesters opposing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration crackdown marched in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Photo by UPI

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Donald Trump administration dispatched approximately 3,000 ICE officers to the Minneapolis area in Minnesota, calling it "the largest operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security." On the morning of the 7th, a woman sitting in the driver’s seat of her car blocking a Minneapolis road was shot and killed by an ICE officer after refusing to open her car door and attempting to drive away, despite officers’ demands. This incident has triggered ongoing protests in Minnesota against the government’s hardline crackdown.

President Trump warned that if Minnesota authorities do not cooperate in suppressing the protests, he may invoke the Insurrection Act. If enacted, the Insurrection Act allows the President to deploy the National Guard or federal troops to the region without the governor’s consent. The last time this law was invoked was during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.