Dawn
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17:13 Jan 23, 2026
Outrage grew on Friday over the detention of a five-year-old boy in a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, as US Vice President JD Vance defended the roundups by federal agents, prompting calls for a general strike. The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Ramos was a pre-school student, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who were asylum seekers were taken from their driveway as they arrived home. Ramos was then used as “bait” by immigration officers to knock on the door of his home to draw out those inside, Zena Stenvik added. Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as US President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport illegal immigrants across the country. Vance confirmed on Thursday that the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, was among those detained, but argued that agents were protecting him after his father “ran” from an immigration sweep. “What are they supposed to do? A...