US immigration officers detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday and flew them to Texas, disregarding a federal judge’s order to release the child, court records show. The father, identified as Elvis Joel TE, and his daughter were stopped by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they returned home from a shop. By evening, a judge had ordered the girl’s release by 9.30pm, but officials instead put both on a plane to a detention centre in Texas.
The toddler was later returned to Minnesota and handed over to her mother, while the father remains in detention, according to Irina Vaynerman, one of the family’s lawyers. She described the situation as “depravity beyond words”. The incident comes two days after ICE detained five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota, sparking international backlash.
According to court filings, agents entered the family’s backyard without a warrant and allegedly broke a car window while the girl was inside. The mother was at the door but agents refused to let the father pass the child to her. The two-year-old was then placed in an agent’s vehicle without a car seat. Lawyers filed an emergency petition, and a federal judge ruled there was a “risk of irreparable harm” and ordered the girl’s immediate release, noting she had “no criminal history”. Despite this, the pair were flown to Texas around 8.30pm.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed the father was an illegal immigrant who had re-entered the US unlawfully and was driving erratically with a child. They alleged the mother refused to take the child, a claim Vaynerman called false, saying agents would not allow the father to bring the girl to her. A crowd gathered during the arrest, leading to crowd control measures, DHS said.
