5-Year-Old Boy Liam Ramos Detained by ICE — Here's What We’ve Learned

The detention of a five-year-old child during a federal immigration operation has drawn responses from school officials, a family lawyer, a former national leader, and government authorities.

The case of a preschool child taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a Minneapolis suburb has sparked alarm within the school community.

Questions are mounting over the circumstances of the situation, particularly as the family's lawyer has spoken about the family's status in the country.

According to CNN, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained on January 20, 2026, by ICE agents outside his home in Columbia Heights. The child was reportedly removed from a running car in the family's driveway.

Ramos and his father, identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were later transferred to an ICE facility in Texas, where they remain in custody.

Since the detention, school officials have publicly addressed the situation.

School's Response

At a recent press conference, Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said at least four students from the district were apprehended by ICE in recent days. That number reportedly included Ramos.

She recalled that masked and armed agents with no identifying badges took the students.

The district initially stayed quiet but chose to speak publicly after witnessing the effect on students and families. Stenvik added:

"The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma, and is taking a toll on our children, taking a toll on our families, our staff, and our community members."

After the arrest, Stenvik visited the family's home and confirmed firsthand that Ramos and his father had the right documents to enter the country.

Others who were nearby at the time also described what they saw as the arrest unfolded.

Witness Recalls the Arrest Scene

Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights Public Schools Board of Education, described a tense moment outside the child's home:

"I was on my way to get my own children from school, and I heard the commotion and saw all of the people. And as I got out of my car, and came around the corner, I heard, 'What are you doing? Don't take the child.'"

She said other adults at the scene tried to intervene. One person from inside the home volunteered to take the boy, while another suggested that since a school official was present, the child could safely be handed over instead of being taken away.

Granlund described seeing the child's mother inside the home, visible through a window. She said the father was outside, urging the mom not to open the door. In her view, there were clear opportunities for the child to be safely handed over to trusted adults at the scene.

Granlund said the incident included a widely shared image in which the boy could be seen at a doorway with an ICE agent "looming over him."

The witness account prompted a response from the family's legal representative.

Attorney Speaks on Behalf of the Family

Attorney Marc Prokosch said Ramos and his father entered the U.S. lawfully in December 2024 through the port of entry in Brownsville, Texas, after scheduling an asylum appointment via the CBP One mobile app.

He added that the family is originally from Ecuador and had presented themselves to border officers to seek asylum. "These are not illegal aliens," Prokosch said. "They came properly. They came legally, and are pursuing a legal pathway."

He confirmed that the family complied fully with government procedures and provided all required information.

"So, they did everything right," Prokosch said. "When they came in, they used the app, they made an appointment, they came to the border, and presented themselves to Customs and Border Patrol."

However, Prokosch declined to discuss details of the asylum request, stating it was confidential. Meanwhile, a well-known national figure weighed in on the case.

Former VP Joins Public Outcry

In a widely circulated post on X, former Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized that Ramos is a young child who should be with his family rather than held in a Texas detention center.

She expressed outrage over the situation and urged the public to be equally concerned.

The federal agency followed up with its own explanation.

DHS Defends the Operation

On X, the DHS explained that the January 20 operation was aimed at arresting Arias. According to officials, he ran away on foot as ICE agents approached, leaving his child behind. One officer stayed with the child while others arrested the father.

DHS said officers tried several times to get the child's mother to come out of the house and take custody. They told her she would not be detained, but she refused. The father reportedly told officers he wanted the child to stay with him.

The DHS also emphasized: "Our officers primary concern during the entire operation was the safety and welfare of the child. Following the mother's abandonment of the child, officers abided by the father's wishes to keep the child with him. Father and son are together at Dilley."

The DHS statement about the Ramos case came during a time of growing concern over ICE activity in Minnesota, including a recent incident where a woman was killed during an operation.

What Happened on Portland Avenue

As previously reported, a woman was shot and killed on Wednesday, January 7, just a few blocks from her Minneapolis home during a confrontation involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities.

The fatal shooting reportedly involved an ICE agent, and the woman was later identified as Renee Nicole Good.

Her family was notified late Wednesday morning, her mother said, after learning of the death through authorities and reporters.

Who She Was to Those Around Her

"That's so stupid. She was probably terrified," Good's mother, Donna Ganger, said after hearing some of the circumstances. Ganger rejected suggestions that her daughter had been involved in violence and instisted she was "not part of anything like that at all."

"Renee was one of the kindest people I've ever known," she said. "She was extremely compassionate. She's taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving, and affectionate. She was an amazing human being."

Neighbors echoed that description. Mary Radford, who lived next door, said she often saw the woman outside with her young son while walking her Australian shepherd, Hazelnut.

"It's a beautiful family. They have a son. He's very sweet. He loves our dog. He always has to go run up and pet and play with her," Radford said. "They're always outside playing." Through tears, Radford added, "We're gonna miss seeing them — forever […] I wish I could have known her more."

What Loved Ones Shared About Her Life

Good lived in the Twin Cities with her partner and children, according to her mother. She had previously been married to Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023 at age 36. His father, Timmy Ray Macklin Sr., said the couple shared a child who is now 6 years old.

"There's nobody else in his life," Macklin said. "I'll drive. I'll fly. To come and get my grandchild." Good also had two additional children from a previous marriage. Macklin added that he believed those children lived with her extended family.

An Instagram account believed to belong to the deceased woman reportedly described her as a "poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN."

How the Community Responded

At an evening vigil, speakers revealed few new details about Good’s death, choosing instead to focus on how she lived. "She was peaceful, she did the right thing," said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-MN. "She died because she loved her neighbors."

Another speaker, identifying himself only as Noah, rejected statements by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that described Renee as a domestic terrorist. Instead, he said she had been present on Portland Avenue "to watch the terrorists."

As the crowd moved through the neighborhood, hundreds of people chanted her name.

Why Her Name May Sound Familiar

Years before moving to Minnesota, Good studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2020, she won the university's undergraduate poetry prize for a piece titled "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs."

At the time, she was known as Renee Macklin, a name connected to her previous marriage, which explains the difference between her byline and her legal name later in life.

A short biography shared on the English Department's Facebook page described her as someone who loved "movie marathons and makes messy art with her daughter and two sons." The page also described her as someone who co-hosted a podcast with her husband, comedian Tim Macklin.

What She Wrote

Good’s award-winning poem, published by the Academy of American Poets, offers the most transparent window into how she made sense of the world. It blends anatomy, belief, memory, and disillusionment.

Below are a few lines from her poem "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs." She wrote:

"I want back my rocking chairs, solipsist sunsets, & coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of cockroaches."

"I've donated Bibles to thrift stores (mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic Himalayan salt lamp — the post-baptism Bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots, the dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind)," it continues.

"Remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs inside my nostrils, & salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms," the poem goes on.

"I repeated & scribbled until it picked its way & stagnated somewhere I can’t point to anymore, maybe my gut — maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul," she added.

The deceased poet went on, "It's the ruler by which I reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge that used to sit, a cloth against fevered forehead. Can I let them both be?"

"Now I can't believe — that the Bible and Qur'an and Bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom used to & exhaling from their mouths 'make room for wonder' — all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as: life is merely to ovum and sperm and where those two meet and how often and how well and what dies there," she concluded.

Good was not only a neighbor, a mother, or a friend. She was a poet whose words wrestled openly with belief, science, fear, and awe. Long after the investigation concludes, those lines, written years earlier, under a different last name, now stand as part of what she leaves behind.