The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, is currently being held with his father at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Dilley, Texas, according to CNN, citing school district officials and the family’s attorney.

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights school district in a Minneapolis suburb, told CNN that the preschooler was removed from the family’s running car during an ICE operation.

Family attorney Marc Prokosch said during a press conference that Liam and his family are originally from Ecuador and had legally entered the United States. He added that they appeared before border officials in Texas in December 2024 and are actively pursuing asylum.

“These are not illegal aliens,” Prokosch said. “They came properly. They came legally, and are pursuing a legal pathway.”

Liam is the latest child caught up in the Trump administration’s renewed mass deportation campaign in Minnesota.

In a statement posted on X, ICE said that on January 20, agents conducted a “targeted operation” to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, whom the agency described as an “illegal alien from Ecuador” released into the US by the Biden administration.

ICE claimed that as officers approached the vehicle, Conejo Arias fled on foot, allegedly abandoning the child.

“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” the agency said.

Federal officials said the child was taken into custody after the father requested that his son remain with him during detention.

The Department of Homeland Security reiterated ICE’s position in a separate post on X, stating that officers’ “primary concern during the entire operation was the safety and welfare of the child.”

The department added that parents are given the option to be deported with their children or to place them with a designated safe guardian. It also promoted the CBP Home app, which it said offers parents a free flight and $2,600 to voluntarily leave the country.

The incident has drawn sharp criticism from Democratic leaders. Former US Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the action in a post on X.

“Liam Ramos is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center,” Harris wrote.

“I am outraged, and you should be too.”