MINNEAPOLIS
The detention of a 5-year-old boy alongside his father in Minnesota has ignited a fierce clash between immigration officials and legal advocates, becoming the latest flashpoint in America’s deeply polarized immigration debate.
Contradictory accounts surround the arrest of Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias and his son, Liam. According to neighbors and school officials, federal agents used the child as “bait,” instructing him to knock on his own door so his mother would answer.
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed that claim as an “abject lie,” asserting the father fled on foot and left the boy alone in a running vehicle.
The boy’s family attorney and advocates argue the parents were never given a genuine chance to place the child with a caregiver before the arrest. DHS maintains its officers acted appropriately.
The incident follows the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer two weeks ago—another case where eyewitness accounts sharply diverged from the government’s justification.
The father and son are now detained at a family facility in Dilley, Texas.
By James Kisoo
