A public school district north of Minneapolis said ICE agents detained four of its students in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said in a Wednesday news conference that four of the district's students had been "taken" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent weeks. Two of the students were on their way to school, she said.
On Tuesday afternoon, 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were taken into custody by ICE agents in their driveway, just after the child returned home from preschool that day, Stenvik said. She added that another adult who lived in the home and was present at the time of the incident "begged" the agents to let him take care of the kid, but the agents refused.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that "ICE did NOT target a child."
McLaughlin said that ICE agents were targeting the boy's father, and that during the arrest, Conejo Arias "fled on foot — abandoning his child. For the child's safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child" while agents apprehended the father.
"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," McLaughlin said in a statement. "This is consistent with past administration's immigration enforcement."
Marc Prokosch, an immigration attorney representing the family, said he believed both father and son are being held in Texas currently.
"I'm exploring whether we file a habeas corpus petition to get him out," he said at Wednesday's news conference. "We'd have to actually file that down in Texas now and then, also continuing to look through the family's overall immigration case, because obviously, Liam doesn't have his own individual case. It's the family as a whole."
NBC News reached out to Prokosch for further comment but he did not immediately respond.
Stenvik noted that the family involved "is following U.S. legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation."
"Why detain a 5-year-old?" Stenvik asked Wednesday. "You can't tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal."
The Columbia Heights Public Schools released a statement saying that 20 minutes after the boy and his father were taken, "the middle school brother came home to a missing dad, a missing little brother, and a terrified mother."
Conejo Ramos' teacher Ella Sullivan said that his removal has been a shock.
"He comes into class every day, and he just brightens the room," she said. "His friends haven't asked about him yet, but I know that they'll catch on, and it's just a very unfortunate situation. It should not be happening."
Additionally, on Tuesday, Stenvik said a 17-year-old student was removed from their car and "taken by armed, masked agents alone." Stenvik said no parents were present.
Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old student was "taken by ICE agents" while she was on her way to school with her mom, Stenvik said. She called her dad during the arrest to let him know what was happening, and by the end of the school day, both the student and her mother were in a detention center in Texas, where they remain, the superintendent added.
And last week, agents "pushed their way into an apartment" and detained a 17-year-old student and her mother, Stenvik said.
NBC News has asked DHS for comment on the additional three students Stenvik said were detained by ICE but did not immediately receive a reply.
Also on Tuesday, Stenvik said an ICE vehicle drove onto school property and approached the high school loading dock. She added that school administration told those in the vehicle to leave.
"ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our children," Stenvik said. "The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken, and our hearts are shattered."
Stenvik said attendance has been down at the district's schools, and that recently she made the call to keep recess indoors because ICE agents were patrolling near one of the schools' playgrounds.
"Our children should not be afraid to come to school or to wait at a bus stop," she said.
McLaughlin previously told NBC News that "ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children. Criminals are no longer able to hide in America's schools to avoid arrest."
