A bunny hat. That's what he was wearing.
Liam Ramos is five years old. He'd just come home from preschool, backpack still on, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained his father in their driveway in Minnesota. The photos released by his school district show a little boy standing outside, an officer gripping his backpack, confusion written across his face.
He wasn't playing. He wasn't waiting for a friend. He was living through one of the most terrifying moments a child can experience.
The Official Story vs. What Actually Happened
The Department of Homeland Security insists they weren't targeting the child. They claim an officer stayed with Liam "for his safety" while others apprehended his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias . They say this is "consistent with past administration's immigration enforcement." Here's what the school officials and the family's lawyer describe: another adult in the home asked to take Liam inside. The request was refused. Then—and this part makes my stomach turn—agents allegedly asked the five-year-old to knock on the door himself, to see if anyone else was home.
A child. Used as bait.
I'm simplifying the legal complexities here for clarity, but the human reality needs no translation. A kindergartener was left standing in the cold, watching his father get taken away, and then asked to help the operation along.
"You Can't Tell Me This Child Is a Criminal"
Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, asked the question that should be echoing in every policy meeting, every courtroom, every conscience: "Why detain a 5-year-old? You can't tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal".
She's right. There's no universe where Liam Ramos poses a threat to national security.
The school board chair, Mary Granlund, put it plainly: "Our children should not be afraid to come to school or wait at the bus stop. Their families should not be afraid to drop off or pick up their children from school" .
That sentence hits different when you picture a kid in a bunny hat.
This Isn't an Isolated Incident
Liam isn't alone. According to school officials, ICE has detained four students in the Columbia Heights district recently—including a 10-year-old and two 17-year-olds. Four children. In one school district.
The family's lawyer, Marc Prokosch, says Liam and his father were likely transferred to a detention centre in Texas. The father, it's worth noting, had an active asylum case. No deportation order.
So we're not talking about someone who'd exhausted every legal avenue. We're talking about a man in the middle of the process, with a small child, swept up in what officials call a "targeted operation".
When "Targeted" Stops Meaning Anything
Federal authorities keep using that word—targeted. Gregory Bovino of the US Border Patrol said their operations are "lawful, targeted, and focused on individuals who pose a serious threat to this community" .
I don't doubt they believe that. But when the collateral damage includes a preschooler in a bunny hat, the word "targeted" loses all meaning.
This is the same state where, just weeks earlier, a federal officer fatally shot a woman named Renee Good during an enforcement action. The administration claims she used her vehicle as a weapon. Protests have erupted across Minneapolis and St Paul. Vice President JD Vance visited Minnesota on Thursday, saying he hoped to "to calm the tensions." He suggested that if local jurisdictions cooperated more, there'd be fewer "mistakes."
Mistakes. That's what they're calling this now.
What Stays With a Child
I think about what Liam will remember. The sound of voices he didn't understand. The grip on his backpack. The cold air. His father's face as he was led away.
Trauma doesn't care about policy justifications. It doesn't read press releases. It just settles into a child's nervous system and stays there, shaping how they see the world, how safe they feel in it.
A child who should have been protected, reassured, and brought inside by a trusted adult. Instead, he was exposed to a scene that will stay in his memory forever.
The Question We Have to Ask Ourselves
I'm not here to debate immigration policy in the abstract. Reasonable people disagree about borders, enforcement, and asylum processes. I get that.
But I am asking this: When did we decide that a five-year-old in a bunny hat is acceptable collateral damage?
When did we agree that children could be left standing in driveways, used to knock on doors, separated from parents who haven't even had their day in court?
Liam Ramos has become a symbol—not because anyone wanted him to be, but because his image cuts through the political noise. A small boy. A blue bunny hat. An officer's hand on his backpack.
That image should make us uncomfortable. It should make us angry. And it should make us ask what kind of country we want to be.
Looking Forward
The protests in Minnesota aren't stopping. The questions aren't going away. And somewhere in Texas, a five-year-old is in a detention facility, probably still wondering what he did wrong.
He didn't do anything wrong. He just came home from school.
Hands off the children. That's not a political slogan. It's the bare minimum of human decency.
— Gerd Dani, Free AstroScience
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