Two More Minnesota Schoolchildren Detained by ICE Amid Growing Outrage
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken custody of two children who attend the same Minnesota elementary school as Liam Ramos, the detained five-year-old, according to school officials. This development intensifies concerns over the government's handling of asylum-seeking families, particularly the psychological toll on young children caught in immigration enforcement operations.
Details of the Detention Incident
The superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, informed the Guardian that two brothers, in second and fifth grades, were detained with their mother on Thursday. The mother has a pending asylum case, and the family has since been transported to a Texas detention facility. Their detention occurs amidst escalating public anger over the continued holding of Liam, a pre-schooler, who is at the same Texas facility with his father and was recently reported to be in a depressed state.
Zena Stenvik, the superintendent, explained that the mother was first taken into custody during a court appointment for her ongoing immigration case on Thursday. From detention, she contacted school leaders, requesting they bring her children to her at the Whipple federal building, a local facility where immigration officers have been holding individuals arrested during aggressive immigration operations in the region. With no other family available to care for her sons, she felt compelled to have them detained alongside her.
Emotional Impact on Children and Educators
It was awful. It was heartbreaking for everybody, Stenvik said. This isn't something we are prepared or trained for. We've dedicated our lives to protecting and educating children. She and Jason Kuhlman, the boys' principal at Valley View Elementary School, devised a plan to have trusted school officials accompany the children to provide comfort as they were escorted into the detention center to reunite with their mother.
Kuhlman expressed profound frustration and anger, stating, [For ICE] to put us in a position like that, I don't have words ... the frustration, the anger, it's overwhelming. He noted that the boys were quiet and stoic until they entered the Whipple building, where the older child became visibly upset. He's a fifth grader, so I guarantee he knows what's going on ... I think the fear started setting in. A school nurse held both boys' hands as they walked into the facility, and Kuhlman attempted to secure their release with the school leaders, but ICE agents refused, describing the experience as very, very traumatic for the children and adults alike.
Broader Context and Legal Challenges
Leslee Sherk, principal of Columbia Academy, another school in the district, also accompanied the boys and observed their shock at the intimidating environment. It's a lot of people in there with guns and weapons and formality and security and masks ... It is not a place for kids. It's scary. The family has since been transferred to the family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, where Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democratic congressman, recently visited Liam and his father, expressing concern over the boy's mental well-being.
Stenvik revealed that there are now five students enrolled in the Columbia Heights school district who are detained in Dilley. Liam and his father were taken into custody last week as they returned home from school. While DHS claimed agents were not targeting Liam and alleged his mother refused to take him, school officials have countered that it appeared agents were using the boy as bait to lure family members to open their door for potential detentions. Liam's family has an active asylum case and entered the US at an authorized port of entry, according to lawyers.
Minneapolis immigrants' rights lawyers are actively fighting in court to prevent ICE from rapidly transferring detained individuals out of state, arguing that this practice removes them from Minnesota's court jurisdiction, complicating access to legal representation and case defense. In a related incident last week, immigration agents detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis, swiftly transporting them to Texas despite a judge's order to keep them in state. Following a federal judge's intervention, the girl has since been returned to Minnesota and reunited with her mother.
Long-Term Consequences and Community Response
Stenvik warned of the enduring negative impacts on children, stating, This will have long-lasting negative impacts on our children, not just for those who are horrifically detained, but those who are living in fear, those who are not leaving their homes and are now learning online, and those who are driving to school and being stopped. She emphasized, We are not crime-ridden here. Our students and their families are not criminals ... Our families deserve to go back to living in a peaceful way. This situation underscores the broader humanitarian and legal challenges faced by asylum-seeking families in the US, particularly in Minnesota, where community and educational leaders are grappling with the fallout from aggressive immigration policies.
