ICE deployment in Minnesota | Major demonstrations in Minneapolis, authorities on the defensive

(Minneapolis) Despite temperatures below -20°C, opponents of anti-migrant operations in Minnesota were mobilized in numbers on Friday, as American authorities tried to calm the indignation caused by the detention of a 5-year-old boy by the immigration police (ICE).

Thousands of people gathered early in the afternoon in the center of Minneapolis, the largest city in this northern US state, brandishing signs calling to “abolish ICE” and “leave our neighbors alone”.

A gathering was to be held afterwards in the room hosting the NBA team’s matches.

Other protests took place around a building used by ICE and at the Minneapolis-St. Paul, where migrants sent to detention centers leave. According to local media, around a hundred members of the clergy who participated in this gathering were arrested.

Responding to the slogan “No work. No school. No shopping”, shops, restaurants and cultural institutions were also closed.

Opposing versions

In the minds of the demonstrators, Renee Good, a 37-year-old American killed by an ICE agent on January 7, and Liam Ramos, 5 years old, detained by ICE since Tuesday.

A photo, widely reported in the media and on social networks, shows the frightened boy, wearing a blue hat with rabbit ears, carrying a backpack held by a figure dressed in black.

There are two opposing versions concerning the circumstances of his treatment by the immigration police.

US Vice President JD Vance, visiting Minneapolis on Thursday, said he was picked up in front of his home after his father, originally from Ecuador and presented as an illegal immigrant, fled to avoid being apprehended.

“We were not aiming for the child,” insisted one of the leaders of the immigration police, Marcos Charles, during a press conference on Friday.

Zena Stenvik, head of the local school network, accused authorities on Wednesday of using the boy as “bait”, by having him knock on the door of his home to encourage people there to come out.

Mr. Charles says his men “did everything possible to reunite him with his family,” but the family refused to open the door to him. M^me Stenvik assures that “another adult living in the house (…) begged the officers to let him look after the young child, but his request was refused”.

The ICE agents “took (Liam Ramos) to eat in a restaurant and spent hours making sure that he was not missing anything,” added Mr. Charles, specifying that the boy and his father had been reunited in a “family residential center while awaiting the outcome of their immigration procedure”, without giving the location.

According to American media, they are in Texas.

The lawyer representing the child and his father, Marc Prokosch, assured that the family, which also includes the mother and an older brother, “did what they were asked to do (…) at each stage of the immigration process”.

“Mistreatment”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was “stunned by the now daily mistreatment” of migrants, urging Washington to “stop practices that tear families apart.”

This incident aggravates a situation already tense by the death of Renee Good. Local Democrats and many state residents dispute the official theory that the immigration officer, who has not been suspended, was in self-defense when he shot him.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that “more than 10,000 illegal aliens” accused of crimes have been arrested in Minnesota, including 3,000 in the past six weeks.

Among them are at least four children, according to Liam Ramos’ school district. Minors have long been confronted by federal immigration services, both under Republican and Democratic governments.

Minnesota, many areas of which are “sanctuaries” limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE, asked the courts to suspend the operation within its borders. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.