JD Vance defends ICE as it detains four Minnesota children, says boy was left behind when father tried to flee

US Vice President JD Vance defended thousands of federal agents leading an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, blaming "far-left agitators" and uncooperative local officials for chaos on the streets.

Vance's statement came as US immigration officials reportedly detained at least four children, including a five-year-old, from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights.

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, was quoted by Reuters as saying that armed and masked ICE officers apprehended four students as of this week, listing two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos.

Flanked by federal officers and two Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrol cars bearing the slogan "Defend the Homeland," Vance repeated his assertion that Renee Good "rammed" her car into an ICE officer before he fatally shot the 37-year-old mother of three on January 7, sparking weeks of unrest.

"I think that Renee Good's death is a tragedy," he said. "I also think that she rammed an ICE officer with her car."

Vance accused the media of misrepresenting that incident, saying the boy was left behind when his father tried to flee from agents.

"What are they supposed to do?" he said. “Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?”

The child watched masked agents take his father from the driveway of their home before they pointed the boy to the back door of the house and motioned for him to knock, according to Rachel James, a city council member who said she witnessed the incident.

The boy was eventually taken from the scene.

The department said the boy's father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide details or mention any criminal history. A lawyer for the family said his clients, who are from Ecuador, were in the US legally and applied for asylum in 2024, Reuters reported.

As per the report, the Ecuadorean boy and his father - both in the country legally as asylum applicants - were whisked off to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, said Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family who is attempting to gain their release.

The lawyer denied that the father had tried to flee and said school officials had offered to take in the boy. The mother stayed inside the house at her husband's urging, the lawyer said, for fear that she, too, would otherwise be detained.

Meanwhile, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said parents targeted by ICE operations are asked if they want their children taken with them or placed with a person they designate.