A small child in a bright blue bunny hat, Spider-Man backpack strapped to his shoulders, braces against the cold, a terrified look on his face. This is Liam Conejo Ramos.
Directly behind him, stands a full-grown man, dressed head-to-foot in black, military-style clothing, his face covered with a balaclava, gripping the boy’s backpack to prevent escape.
Liam is now one of more than roughly 68,000 people detained by ICE agents marauding through American neighbourhoods in search of those deemed a danger to the US.
The difference this time? He’s just five years old.
The scene only grows more distressing as the anonymous ICE agent escorts the child towards a waiting vehicle.
In the background, desperate pleas for his release go unheard.
This isn’t a dispatch from a distant authoritarian regime.
This is the United States, the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, conducting a high-stakes enforcement action against a child as he gets home from preschool.
(Picture: Columbia Heights Public Schools)
An emotional Zena Stenvik, Liam’s school superintendent, was already reeling from the capture of three other students in the last month, when she gave a press conference.
The Columbia Heights Public Schools described the bleak episode that led to the “kind and loving” boy’s detention.
Stenvik said Ramos had just arrived home from preschool when he and his father were apprehended in their driveway.
Another adult living in the home ‘begged’ agents to let him care for Liam rather than allow him to fall into the hands of US authorities.
‘Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running car, led him to the door, and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,’ she said.
The boy’s middle school-aged brother is said to have returned home to find his father and younger brother missing. The boys’ mother was not detained by ICE.
After seeing images of children kept in cages in 2018, Stenvik called for “justice” for little Liam.
The crowds of people locked up by ICE climbed to record numbers, according to data published by the department last week.
The data showed that, as of Thursday 15, ICE was holding roughly 73,000 individuals, with many now facing deportation.
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