The detention of a 5-year-old boy from Ecuador alongside his father outside their Minnesota home has intensified national debate over immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Federal authorities, the family’s attorney, neighbors and school officials have offered sharply conflicting accounts over whether the parents were given a real chance to place the child in someone else’s care.
According to neighbors and school officials, immigration officers involved the child directly by instructing him to knock on his home’s door in an attempt to draw his mother outside.
The Department of Homeland Security has rejected that claim, calling it an “abject lie.” Officials say the father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, ran from officers and left his son, Liam Conejo Ramos, alone in a running vehicle parked in the driveway.
The conflicting versions surfaced just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an ICE officer — an incident witnesses described as an abuse of authority but which federal officials defended as self-defense.
The father and son are currently being held at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio.
Federal authorities say Conejo Arias was in the United States illegally, though they have not provided further details. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he entered the country unlawfully in December 2024.
The family’s lawyer countered that Conejo Arias had a pending asylum application that allowed him to remain in the U.S.
Both claims may be accurate. Officials could have moved to deport him after determining he entered illegally, while he simultaneously exercised his legal right to seek asylum, temporarily halting removal until a judge decides the case.
Online court records show the asylum case was filed on Dec. 17, 2024, and assigned to the immigration court inside the Dilley detention facility.
Below is a breakdown of what officials, lawyers and others are saying:
School officials say ICE used the child as ‘bait’
Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said officers instructed the boy to knock on the door to check whether anyone else was inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.
Stenvik said the father told the child’s mother not to open the door.
School officials also said agents refused requests to leave the child with other adults.
A widely shared photo of the boy wearing a beanie and a Spiderman backpack has fueled public reaction.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Stenvik asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Other adults offered to take care of the child
School officials said several adults present offered to care for the boy but were ignored, including a neighbor who said she had documentation authorizing her to take custody of him on behalf of the parents.
Columbia Heights school board chair Mary Granlund said she also told agents she could care for the child.
ICE rejects claims from school officials and neighbors
“ICE did NOT target, arrest a child or use a child as ‘bait,’” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. “ICE law enforcement officers were the only people primarily concerned with the welfare of this child. ”
McLaughlin said the child had been abandoned and officers made repeated efforts to have the mother take custody. “Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken her into custody.”
She added that officers “abided by the father’s wishes to keep the child with him."
ICE and Border Patrol criticize media coverage
Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino said at a Friday news conference that reporting on the case was based on a “false media narrative.”
Marcos Charles, acting executive associate director of ICE enforcement and removal operations, said the father was responsible for “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.” He said one officer stayed with the child while others arrested the father, later providing food and attempting to reunite him with family.
“Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in and open the door. ... Fortunately, Conejo Arias eventually requested that his child stay with him," Charles said.
Charles said he did not know the whereabouts of the child’s mother.
Conditions at the Texas detention center
The father and son are being held at the Dilley family detention center, where advocacy groups say conditions for children have deteriorated.
Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at Children’s Rights, said after visiting the facility last week that conditions are worse than ever.
“The number of children had skyrocketed and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said, adding that the administration acknowledged in December that about 400 children had faced extended detention.
“Nearly every child we spoke to was sick,” she said.
Bovino argued that child-parent separation occurs when U.S. citizens are jailed by local police.
“I challenge any other law enforcement agency anywhere nationwide to show me the fantastic care that ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol provide children,” Bovino said.
He added that without his father, the boy could have ended up in social services custody.
Charles said families in detention receive “top-notch care. They have medical care. The food is good. They have learning services. They have church services available. They have recreation.”
Lawyer unable to contact family
Family attorney Marc Prokosch said Thursday he believed the father and son were being held together but had not been able to communicate with them.
“We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or through moral pressure,” he said.
Prokosch was unavailable for comment on Friday, according to his office.
Administration policy on detaining children
The child’s immigration status remains unclear and could be decisive. Charles said the family entered the U.S. together, indicating the boy was not born in the country.
Trump border czar Tom Homan has said parents of U.S.-born children may choose whether to take their children with them or leave them behind.
“This is parenting 101. You can decide to take that child with you or you can decide to leave the child with a relative or another spouse,” Homan said last year on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The Trump administration issued a “Detained Parents Directive” last July stating that ICE “should under no circumstances take custody of children or transport them” when minors are encountered during enforcement actions, with certain exceptions.
The directive instructs ICE to give parents time to arrange alternative care for children before detention but does not clarify what happens if parents request that children remain with them.
Read More: Trump’s immigration crackdown fuels anxiety among child care workers
“If a parent is arrested while with their child, the government is not required to arrest the child, regardless of the child’s immigration status,” said Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law. “When ICE detains a parent, its own policy requires them to allow time for arrangements to be made for the child’s care.”