MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The detention of a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father outside their home in Minnesota has become the latest lightning rod for the U.S. immigration divide under the Trump administration. Government officials, family lawyers and neighbors offered conflicting versions of whether the parents had adequate opportunity to leave their children with others.
Neighbors and school officials said federal immigration officials used the preschooler as “bait” to have him knock on his door so his mother would open the door.
The Department of Homeland Security called this version of events a “despicable lie.” The child’s father, Adrian Alexander Cornejo Arias, allegedly fled on foot, leaving the boy, Liam Cornejo Ramos, in a moving car in the driveway.
Just two weeks ago, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Goode in Minneapolis in what witnesses also called a flagrant abuse of power, while the government argued it was a legitimate act of self-defense.
The father and son are currently being held at the Family Detention Facility in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio.
Federal officials said the father was in the United States illegally but did not provide details. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said he entered the country illegally in December 2024.
The family’s lawyer said he has a pending asylum application that would allow him to remain in the country.
Both can be true. The government may have tried to deport him after determining he was in the country illegally, but he may have exercised his legal right to seek asylum and thus put his deportation on hold until a judge rules on his claim.
Online court dockets show the case was filed on Dec. 17, 2024 and assigned to the immigration court within the Dilley Detention Center.
Here’s what officials, lawyers and others have to say about the case:
School officials say ICE used the boy as a ‘bait’
Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told reporters that police instructed the boy to knock on the door of his home to see if anyone else was inside, “basically using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.
Stanwick said the father told the mother, who was inside, not to open the door.
School officials said agents would not let Liam be around other adults.
A photo of a boy wearing a beanie and carrying a Spider-Man backpack has been widely circulated on social media, sparking a backlash.
“Why would you detain a 5-year-old?” the sergeant asked. “You can’t tell me that this kid is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Other adults present wanted to take care of the boy
School officials said other adults at the scene offered to care for the boy but were ignored by agents, including one neighbor who said they had paperwork authorizing her to care for Liam on behalf of his parents.
Columbia Heights School Board President Mary Granlund said she told agents she could also take care of him.
ICE denies claims from school officials, neighbors
“ICE does not target, arrest, or use children as ‘bait,'” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. “ICE law enforcement officers are the only ones whose primary concern is the welfare of this child.”
The child was abandoned and police made every effort to get the child’s mother to take custody of the child, McLaughlin said. “Officials even assured her that she would not be detained.”
She said the officers “complied with the father’s wishes and kept the child with him.”
Bovino, ICE officials criticize media coverage
At a news conference Friday, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino criticized what he called a “false media narrative” about the case.
Marcos Charles, ICE’s acting executive deputy director for enforcement and removal operations, accused the father of “abandoning his child in a car in the middle of winter.” He told reporters that one officer stayed with the child while others arrested the father. He said his officers then prepared food for the boy and “made every effort to reunite him with his family.”
“Sadly, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him inside and open the door. … Fortunately, Cornejo Arias ultimately asked his children to live with him,” Charles said.
Charles said he didn’t know what became of the child’s mother.
Where are father and son now?
They are being held at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families report children are malnourished, sick and subjected to prolonged detention. Licia Welch, chief legal counsel for the children’s rights group, visited the facility last week and said conditions there were worse than ever.
“The number of children has skyrocketed, with large numbers of children being detained for more than 100 days,” Welch said. The government acknowledged in December that some 400 children faced long-term detention.
“Almost every kid we talked to was sick,” Welch said.
Bovino noted that when American citizens are arrested and imprisoned by local police anywhere in the country, they are separated from their children.
“I challenge any other law enforcement agency in the country to show me the quality of care that ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol provide to children,” Bovino said.
Bovino said if Liam hadn’t been with his father, he might have ended up in the custody of social services without his parents.
People at the family center, Charles said, “get top-notch care. They have health care. The food is good. They have learning services. They have chapel services. They have recreation.”
The family’s attorney could not reach them.
The family’s attorney, Mark Prokosh, said Thursday he believed Liam and his father were being held in a family cell but that he had no direct contact with them.
“We are considering our legal options to see if they can be released through some legal mechanism or through moral pressure,” he told a news conference on Thursday.
On Friday, Prokosh’s office said it could not comment.
What is the Trump administration’s policy on detaining children?
The child’s immigration status may be a key factor, and it’s unclear whether the 5-year-old is in the U.S. legally. If he fails to do so, he may be deported along with one or both parents. ICE official Charles said Friday that the family entered the U.S. together, indicating he was not a U.S.-born citizen.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly said parents of U.S.-born children can choose to take their children with them when deported or hand them over to someone else.
“This is parenting 101. You can decide to take the child away, or you can decide to leave the child with a relative or another spouse,” Homan told CBS’ “Face the Nation” last year.
The Trump administration issued a “Detained Parent Directive” last July stating that ICE “should not under any circumstances have custody or transport of minor children” if they are encountered during ICE enforcement operations. The directive includes exemptions for people who could lose their immigration status.
The directive says ICE should allow parents and guardians to make alternative care arrangements for their children before they are detained.
It does not specify what happens when parents say they want their children to stay with them.
“If a parent is arrested with a child, the government is not required to arrest the child, regardless of the child’s immigration status,” said Neha Desai, general manager of Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Juvenile Law Center. “When ICE detains parents, its policy requires them to allow time to arrange the child’s care.”
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Associated Press reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Gisela Solomon in Miami contributed to this report.