Outrage Over ICE Tactics, ETEducation
WASHINGTON, – U.S. immigration authorities detained at least four children including a 5-year-old from the same Minneapolis-area school district this month, school district officials said at a press conference.
The report comes amid concerns over the scope and tactics of federal law enforcement officers as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has seen 3,000 officers deployed to Minnesota’s largest city.
Trump has described the crackdown as a battle to get violent criminals out of the U.S.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights Public Schools district superintendent, said at a Wednesday press conference, according to U.S. media. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin on Thursday denied a child was targeted.
“ICE did NOT target a child,” she said in a statement. ICE conducted a targeted operation on Tuesday to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who she said was in the country illegally. “As agents approached the driver Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot-abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” she said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone and Chizu Nomiyama )
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