ICE’s detainment of a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota last week made national headlines and hit a nerve — particularly for immigration advocates in New York.
Lost in the coverage of Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend was the story of Liam Conejo Ramos, the preschooler who was taken into ICE custody by the scruff of his Spider-Man backpack in Minneapolis. Reports indicated that agents used the child as bait to lure his father out of their home and into their clutches.
According to CNN, Conejo Ramos is the fourth child from his school district to be detained by immigration officials. Advocates in the Big Apple say this sets a dangerous precedent for New York.
The photograph of the confused 5-year-old being clutched by ICE agents has sent shockwaves across the country, yet attorneys in Manhattan say the process is nothing new.
“ICE agents in New York City already began arresting and detaining children under 21 with Special Juvenile Immigration Status last year, however, we’ve seen younger children detained with their mothers at check-ins before being shipped off to Texas to be deported. Clearly, ICE isn’t targeting the worst of the worst, but instead sweeping up immigrants who are younger and younger,” Benjamin Remy said, senior coordinating attorney for New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)’s Immigrant Protection Unit.
The majority of these New York detainments have taken place inside 26 Federal Plaza at ICE check-ins on the 5th floor, where apprehensions take place out of sight.
Earlier this month, amNewYork reported on Gina Vega, a distraught Queens mother whose high school student son was detained at one of these check-ins. Last month, Deglis Yohardis Salazar Osuna, another high schooler, was reunited with his parents after he was likewise taken into custody by ICE inside immigration court on Nov. 25.
Most shockingly of all, a 6-year-old girl was also detained in the now infamous facility over the summer with her family during a routine hearing.
Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh told amNewYork that while New York has seen its own horrific cases of childhood detentions, they have been isolated to 26 Federal Plaza. For him, the case of Liam Conejo Ramos being taken off the street exemplifies an alarming expansion of ICE cruelty.
“We’ve seen several children taken. We’ve seen a mother and her daughter who, instead of being able to fight their case, which is what they were trying to do, were quickly deported from the country. It’s not like this is happening in a vacuum; any system that takes children as a tool of enforcement has lost its moral authority,” Awawdeh said.
Awawdeh went on to charge that he believes elected officials in Congress should defund ICE due to these child detentions and the ongoing violence, like that of the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse gunned down in Minneapolis by federal agents on Jan. 24.
“Taking children is a line no government should ever cross, and ICE’s actions are traumatizing families, terrorizing our communities and betraying our most basic values,” Awawdeh added. “This is part of what we have been calling out for some time here, where ICE continues to operate, even more rogue, even more lawless, and their violence has no limits. What should happen is our U.S. Congress should strip them of their money instead of giving them additional dollars to wreak havoc across our country.”
According to those with knowledge of child detainees inside 26 Federal Plaza, the building does not have adequate accommodation for adolescents. When a child is taken into ICE custody, they are kept with their mother and then swiftly transferred to another detention facility.
New York immigrant families are reportedly growing more fearful by the day following incidents like that of Conejo Ramos and further street detainments locally.
According to Make the Road New York, an immigration rights advocacy group, ICE arrests have been increasing, even by their own office.
“We are witnessing unconscionable levels of escalating cruelty from ICE around the country,” said Luba Cortés, civil rights and immigration lead organizer at Make the Road New York. “In New York, young people face constant fear and anxiety as ICE increases their kidnappings near high schools, including near our offices in Brentwood. Our state leaders must step up this legislative cycle to ensure no state and local resources are used to fuel this mass deportation regime.”
