Witnesses dispute DHS claim that 5-year-old was ‘abandoned’ prior to ICE detainment

Four people who witnessed the detainment of a 5-year-old boy and his father say what they saw does not support the federal government’s characterization that the child was “abandoned.”

Columbia Heights City Council Member Rachel James and an observer who asked not to be named said Jan. 23 that they both were there when the incident unfolded outside the family’s home three days earlier. They heard several adults offer to take the child — including a man who said he lived in the home. The child was taken to the back door and prompted to knock on it for several minutes while federal agents stood nearby, they said.

Two other community members who filmed the scene said the father was detained in the driveway with no clearly visible evidence of a previous struggle. They also said agents ignored several people offering to help the 5-year-old, including someone waving papers.

Their accounts mirror what school district officials have said in recent news conferences. Columbia Heights Superintendent Zena Stenvik said she believes the mother was home at the time and “was probably fearful to open that door.”

The sharply different accounts have turned the preschooler’s case, which has drawn international media attention, into the latest flashpoint in an ongoing dispute between federal officials and local witnesses over what happens during immigration enforcement actions.

While bystanders and school officials dispute claims that the child was left without care, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal leaders have pushed back, repeating that agents acted appropriately and humanely and had no alternative but to take the boy.

The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were taken to a San Antonio family detention facility, the family’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, said. The family, originally from Ecuador, had an active asylum case and the father had no criminal history, Prokosch said.

In the afternoon on Jan. 20, just after the boy’s preschool had dismissed for the day, videos posted to social media show several agents blocking part of the snowy suburban street. No video publicly released so far seems to capture the full incident, so how the scene started is left to federal officials’ and bystanders’ accounts.

Social media videos show several bystanders flocking to the street, blowing whistles and yelling at agents to release the 5-year-old. “That’s a little kid,” one man screamed in between honking his car horn.

Another woman videotaped from her car as the little boy, wearing a blue rabbit hat and red Spiderman backpack, was escorted into an SUV by a masked agent. “Where’s your humanity?! Where’s your humanity?! That is a kid! That is a child ... What is wrong with you?” she shouted at agents.

The Department of Homeland Security posted on X that criticisms of the operation were “a horrific smear pushed by the media and anti-ICE activists,” saying in the post that the child was “ABANDONDED by his father, and the alleged mother REFUSED to take custody of her own child.”

The post said that law enforcement “took care of the child, got him McDonald’s and played him his favorite music to comfort him.” The post added that 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.

James said she cannot speak to what happened before she arrived but questioned the government’s use of the word “abandoned” based on what she observed.

“I don’t know how that word would make sense when there were adult members of the household right there outside, and the car was parked, warm and running, in the driveway, and the child was in no danger when the father was there,” James said.

When James pulled up, several others, including neighbors, were already observing from a distance. She saw Arias standing next to his running vehicle, handcuffed or zip tied with agents surrounding him, she said.

James said she initially stood about half a block away before hearing someone say a child was involved and moved closer to see what was happening behind the house. James said she saw an agent crouched beside Liam at the back door of the home, gesturing for him to knock.

Liam knocked at the door for several minutes, James said, while several agents stood around, many with their phones out.

She said neighbors and another adult member of the household repeatedly offered to take the child inside or care for him.

“One neighbor was saying, ‘I have the forms,’” James said. “They weren’t responding to any of us.”

The Columbia Heights school district, where more than half of students are Hispanic or Latino, began more than a year ago to connect families to resources, including forms that grant guardianship of children to someone else if a parent is detained or deported.

A video filmed by the two community members from their vehicle shows an adult holding what appears to be documents. They asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

James and school board chair Mary Granlund, who arrived at the scene before Liam and his father were driven away, said multiple people told agents that there were school officials there who could help.

“Liam looked terrified,” she said. “He wasn’t loudly crying out but he looked scared and confused, like he was just almost frozen in fear.”

James said Liam was put into the same vehicle as his father. “They did not have a booster seat. They didn’t have any child restraints,” she said.

Another witness, who described herself as a trained observer, echoed much of what James said she saw. She also said agents took Liam to the back door to repeatedly knock before putting him into the vehicle with his father.

“I didn’t see Liam’s dad flee at all when I got there,” the observer said. “He was very still. From what I could see, he was very compliant.”

Prokosch said U.S. Sen. Tina Smith helped confirm the boy and his father are now at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in San Antonio. A spokeswoman for Smith’s office said the senator is working with Prokosch on the family’s case.

A bus full of children drove by as the incident was playing out.

Stenvik said teachers, school staff and community members have rallied together to monitor school buildings for federal agents and the district moved recess inside because of nearby enforcement activity.

“I feel like the ripple effects of this are to all of the youth in our community,” James said.

The story has captured attention around the country and world, which is why James said she is speaking publicly to counter the DHS claim that there was no one except agents who could take Liam.