ICE’s detention of a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota last week made national headlines and struck a chord, especially among immigrant advocates in New York.
Going almost unnoticed amid the coverage of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend was the story of Liam Conejo Ramos, the preschooler who ICE took into custody by grabbing Spider-Man’s backpack in Minneapolis. Reports indicate that the agents used the minor as a decoy to force his father to leave the house and arrest him.
According to CNN, Conejo Ramos is the fourth child from his school district detained by immigration authorities. Advocates in New York warn that this sets a dangerous precedent for the city.
The photograph of the confused 5-year-old boy being held by ICE agents shook the country. However, lawyers in Manhattan say the procedure is not new.
“In New York City, ICE already began last year arresting and detaining young people under the age of 21 with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. In addition, we have seen even younger children detained with their mothers during check-in appointments and then quickly sent to Texas for deportation. It is clear that ICE is not going after ‘the worst of the worst,’ but is instead ensnaring younger and younger immigrants,” said Benjamin Remy, senior coordinating attorney for the Immigrant Protection Unit. by NYLAG.
Most of these arrests in New York occur inside the 26 Federal Plaza building, during ICE appointments on the fifth floor, where arrests are made out of public view.
Earlier this month, our sister publication amNewYork reported on Gina Vega, a Queens mother devastated after her high school student son was detained during one of these dates. Last month, Deglis Yohardis Salazar Osuna, another high school student, was reunited with his parents after ICE also detained him inside an immigration court on Nov. 25.
Even more alarming, a 6-year-old girl was detained over the summer at the now-infamous facility along with her family during a routine hearing.
Murad Awawdeh, president of the Immigration Coalition, told amNewYork that while New York has seen horrific cases of child detentions, they have been limited to 26 Federal Plaza. For him, the fact that ICE took Liam Conejo Ramos off the street shows an alarming expansion of the agency’s cruelty.
“We have seen several children detained. We saw a mother and her daughter who, instead of being able to defend their case – which is what they were trying to do – were quickly deported from the country. This does not happen in a vacuum; any system that uses children as a tool of control has lost its moral authority,” Awawdeh said.
Awawdeh added that elected officials in Congress should defund ICE for these child detentions and for ongoing violence, such as the murder of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on January 24.
“Taking children is a line that no government should cross. ICE’s actions traumatize families, terrify our communities, and betray our most basic values,” he added. “This is part of what we have been denouncing for a long time: ICE continues to operate in an increasingly uncontrolled and lawless manner, with no limits to its violence. What should happen is that the United States Congress defunds them instead of giving them more money to wreak havoc throughout the country.”
According to people with knowledge of the situation of minors detained at 26 Federal Plaza, the building does not have adequate facilities for adolescents. When ICE detains a child, it keeps him with his mother and then quickly transfers him to another detention center.
Immigrant families in New York report that fear grows day by day after incidents like that of Conejo Ramos and new arrests on public roads locally.
According to Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights organization, ICE arrests are on the rise, even near their own offices.
“We are seeing unconscionable levels of escalating cruelty by ICE across the country,” said Luba Cortés, senior civil rights and immigration organizer at Make the Road New York. “In New York, young people live in constant fear and anxiety as ICE increases its abductions near high schools, including near our offices in Brentwood. Our state leaders must act this legislative cycle to ensure that no state or local resources are used to fuel this regime of mass deportations.”
