Vice President J.D. Vance clapped back at a reporter who accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of arresting an illegal alien’s five-year-old in Minnesota.
The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, entered a federal immigration enforcement vehicle after agents detained his illegal alien father in their driveway on Thursday. Vance stated during a speech in Minneapolis that the boy’s father ran off without his son as agents approached to arrest him, which prompted agents to make sure the boy remained safe.
“I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis,” Vance said. “We just left Toledo, Ohio, this morning for an economic messaging event and I see this story. And I’m a father of a five-year-old actually, a five-year-old little boy, and I think to myself, ‘oh my god, this is terrible.’ How did we arrest a five-year-old? Well, I do a little bit more follow-up research and what I find is that the five-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien and then when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran.”
“So, the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?” Vance continued. “Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America? If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who have violated laws because they have children then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement. That doesn’t make any sense.”Â
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The White House condemned the media on Thursday for omitting the full context, stating that the agents were ensuring the child did not freeze. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarified on X that parents have the option to be removed from the U.S. with their children, which caused the child to travel to the detention center along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who reportedly entered the U.S. illegally from El Salvador.
“ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED,” DHS said. “On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration. As agents approached the driver Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot—abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement,” the statement continued.
School officials and the family lawyer said that the agents took the father and the child to a detention facility in Texas, according to The Associated Press. Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference that ICE agents took the child from a running car in the driveway when he returned home from preschool.
President Donald Trump’s administration sent nearly 1,000 additional ICE agents to Minnesota to ensure that federal immigration enforcement can conduct its operations safely. The anti-ICE sentiment escalated throughout the state following the death of Renee Good on Jan. 7, who got shot by an ICE agent after she hit him with her car.
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