A 5-year-old boy arriving home from pre-school in Minnesota was taken by federal agents along with his father to a detention facility in Texas, school officials and the family’s lawyer said, making him the fourth student from his Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.
Federal agents took the child from a running car in the family’s driveway on Tuesday afternoon (January 20, 2026), Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters Wednesday (January 21, 2026). The officers told him to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.
The father told the child’s mother, who was inside the home and has not been named, not to open the door, Ms. Stenvik told reporters Thursday (January 22, 2026).
School officials said the agents wouldn’t leave the child with another adult who lives at the home or an official from the school district. But on Thursday (January 22, 2026), Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an online post that the father asked for the child to stay with him and that they are together at an immigration lockup in Dilley, Texas.
The family, who came to the U.S. in 2024, has an active asylum case and had not been ordered to leave the country, Ms. Stenvik said.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” she asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.” McLaughlin said in a statement Wednesday (January 21, 2026) that “ICE did NOT target a child.” She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arresting the child’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who McLaughlin said is from Ecuador and in the U.S. illegally. He fled on foot, “abandoning his child,” 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, adding that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing.
Minnesota has become a major focus of federal immigration sweeps. Greg Bovino, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official who has been the face of the crackdowns, said immigration officers have made about 3,000 arrests in Minnesota in the last six weeks.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance met with Minneapolis leaders Thursday (January 22, 2026) and said he heard the “terrible story” but later learnt the boy was only detained, not arrested.
“Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” said Mr. Vance, noting that he’s the parent of a 5-year-old.
Mr. Vance wasn’t asked about why immigration officers allegedly wouldn’t leave the boy with the other adult who lives at the home and offered to take him.
Conditions at the Dilley lockup
Families are reporting that children are malnourished, extremely ill, and suffering profoundly from prolonged detention at the Dilley lockup, where conditions are worse than ever, said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsellor at Children’s Rights. Ms. Welch visited the facility last week as part of a lawsuit over the welfare of immigrant children in federal custody.
“The number of children had skyrocketed and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” she said. The administration in December acknowledged that about 400 children had faced extended detention.
“Nearly every child we spoke to was sick,” Ms. Welch said.
