Five-year-old detained by ICE in US' Minneapolis, school alleges he was used as 'bait'; Vice President J D Vance says boy was 'saved'

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement allegedly detained four children, including a five-year-old Ecuadorian child -- a claim rejected by Vice President JD Vance -- from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights.

School officials and the lawyer of the child's family have alleged that the boy and his father were sent to a detention facility in ⁠Dilley, Texas.

According to Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, armed and masked ICE officers had apprehended four students, including 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 in a press conference.

However, Vance has strongly denied the claim saying Ramos was rescued by officials after his father abandoned him.

"I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien, and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?" Vance argued while addressing a press conference.

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

According to a Reuters report quoting a witness, School officials, a family member and neighbours offered to take Ramos, only to be taken by ICE officials.

Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights school board, said school officials are authorised to take custody of a child in the absence of a parent.

"The boy's mother was inside the home, but her husband instructed her to remain inside, most likely to avoid detention herself," Granlund told reporters.

The officers allegedly took the child in the back seat of a black SUV and sped away, a Columbia Heights city council member who also witnessed the events.

According to witnesses who spoke to Reuters, Liam was wearing a blue hat and had a Spider-Man backpack along with him as he watched masked and armed ICE officers take away his father after the two returned from preschool on Tuesday.

They added that the boy was used as bait to lure his mother out of the house.

Democrat leader Kamala Harris took to social media, saying Ramos is just a baby and should be at home with his family.

ICE detentions

The detentions are a part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which has deployed about 3,000 federal law enforcement officers to the Minneapolis area.

Armed federal officers have pursued suspects they claim are criminals and violate immigration laws.