CNN's Sara Sidner knocked down the essential claim made by Vice President JD Vance to justify the detention of a 5-year-old boy by immigration agents.
Liam Conejo Ramos was removed from the family’s running car Tuesday after returning home from preschool with his father and used as bait to lure other family members outside during a raid in Minnesota, according to school officials, but the vice president visited the area Thursday and defended the agents' actions.
“So the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old? Well, what are they supposed to do?” Vance said, flanked by ICE officers and Border Patrol agents. “Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
However, Sidner said in a live report from Minneapolis, there are conflicting reports about the incident.
"We heard from both JD Vance, who made certain statements, and the lawyer who refuted his statements, as well as school officials, one of whom happened to be coming home from school, saw the commotion, went over and witnessed what she said happened," Sidner said. "She said, look, as she was watching all this go down, there were certainly people there that could have taken this child other than ICE."
Mary Granlund, the Columbia Heights school board chair, told reporters that she offered to take Liam Conejo Ramos back to school until his mother, who was inside the home but afraid to open the door to ICE agents, could come get him.
"The five year old child was never in danger of freezing to death," Sidner said. "There were school officials there who said that they were happy to take him to the safe place, back to school. There was a mother just behind the door. They knew that who was too afraid to open it for fear that ICE was going to take her. But this idea that this child was just left outside, was going to be left outside to freeze to death, is just simply not true. What is true is that this has again riled folks here, seeing this image of this little boy, Liam, in his little backpack, being taken away by masked ICE agents, it is really gotten people emotional, including the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey."
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