The Department of Homeland Security says a 5-year-old boy Minnesota Democrats claimed was targeted by ICE was in fact abandoned by his illegal immigrant father during a federal enforcement operation.
The clarification came after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar circulated a photo of the child and alleged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him while he was returning home from preschool. The White House forcefully rejected that account, accusing Democrats and sympathetic media outlets of spreading falsehoods.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration views the episode as another example of misinformation surrounding immigration enforcement.
“It’s shameful that the media so quickly runs with the fake Democrat narrative without first getting the facts,” Jackson told Fox News Digital. “Here’s the reality: ICE officers work heroically with the utmost professionalism to make American communities safer. In this instance, they stayed with a child who was abandoned by his father — an illegal alien from Ecuador.”
Jackson added that inflammatory rhetoric has consequences.
“The media’s lies have consequences — assaults against ICE officers have increased by 1300% because of dangerous smears against them by elected Democrats that are amplified by the press,” she said. “The Trump Administration is not only removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from the country, but we are also locating the countless migrant children that Joe Biden lost. Thanks to the Administration’s efforts well over 120,000 children have been located.”
The controversy centers on an image showing a small boy wearing a winter hat and backpack standing beside a dark vehicle during an ICE operation in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb.
Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik claimed federal agents removed the child from a running car in his driveway Tuesday afternoon. The child was later transported with his father to a detention facility in Texas, according to the Associated Press.
DHS said that version is false.
🚨 JUST IN: JD Vance PUMMELS Fake News reporter’s misleading question that a “5 year old was detained by ICE”
Turns out, this was an ABANDONED CHILD that agents saved from being stranded in the cold when his illegal alien father fled the scene
THEY SAVED THE KID, the Fake News… pic.twitter.com/Vm5olwgODh
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 22, 2026
“ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED,” the agency wrote on X. “On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration.”
According to DHS, agents approached the vehicle when Conejo Arias fled on foot, leaving the child behind.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” the statement said.
DHS said officers attempted multiple times to reunite the child with his mother, who was inside the home, but she refused to take custody despite assurances she would not be detained. The father requested the child remain with him, and agents complied.
“Our officers’ primary concern during the entire operation was the safety and welfare of the child,” DHS said. “Father and son are together at Dilley.”
Stenvik said the family has an active asylum case and has not been ordered removed. She criticized the enforcement action, questioning why a child was involved.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” she said, according to the AP. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Minnesota Democrats condemned the incident, with Walz calling it a campaign of intimidation and Omar accusing ICE of lying about targeting “the worst of the worst.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in as well, writing on X that using children in enforcement actions was unacceptable.
ICE fired back directly.
“THIS IS AN ABJECT LIE,” the agency wrote. “The child was ABANDONED by his father, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador, who fled from our officers. Our officers ensured the child was SAFE.”
ICE added that critics remain silent about American families harmed by crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
The boy is the fourth student from Columbia Heights Public Schools detained by ICE in recent weeks, according to district officials. The school system said it plans to hold a press conference Thursday evening addressing recent immigration enforcement actions involving students.
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