Thousands Protest ICE Detention of Five-Year-Old as Minneapolis Businesses Shut Down

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Minneapolis on Friday, enduring freezing temperatures to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, as widespread anger grew over the detention of a five-year-old migrant child. In solidarity, dozens of local businesses shut down for the day.

Public outrage reignited after images circulated of a visibly distressed preschooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, being held by immigration officers who were attempting to arrest his father. The incident has intensified criticism of the federal enforcement campaign, which has already resulted in the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an agent.

According to Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik, Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias—an Ecuadoran asylum seeker—were detained in their driveway upon returning home Tuesday. Stenvik said officers then used the child as “bait” to force others inside the home to come out.

One protester, who asked to remain anonymous, said he joined the march out of fear for the country’s future. “If we don’t fight, we don’t win. If we don’t fight, fascism wins,” he told AFP. He carried a sign reading, “Five years old, dude,” referencing Ramos’s age.

The protests come as thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city as President Donald Trump escalates his nationwide deportation push.

During a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Ramos had been detained, but defended the officers’ actions, claiming they were protecting the child after his father fled. “What are they supposed to do?” Vance said. “Let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the incident, urging US authorities to end what he described as the “harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”

ICE records show Arias is currently being held at a detention facility in Texas, though the agency does not disclose the locations of detainees under 18.

As protests continued, restaurants, tourist attractions, and other businesses across Minnesota closed their doors in a coordinated act of defiance against the ongoing federal immigration operation.