A group of protesters clashed with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on Wednesday outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention center, where a 5-year-old boy, who has made headlines, is being held with his suspected illegal immigrant father.
At least two protesters were arrested as troopers attempted to clear the crowd of around 150 people who were blocking a road outside of the South Texas Family Residential Center near Dilley, Texas. Law enforcement officers deployed tear gas and shoved the crowd back, a video from ABC’s San Antonio affiliate KSAT shows.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said that it sent troopers to the facility “at the request of the City of Dilley.”
“During today’s response, after dispersal orders were given, approximately 150 demonstrators refused to leave and began to breach the established protest barrier and spit on officers,” the department said. “Despite continued orders to disperse, the group remained and DPS took less-lethal action, deploying pepper ball grenades and pepper ball projectiles to ensure officer safety and maintain order. DPS personnel arrested two individuals on various charges, including resisting arrest and interfering with public duties.”
The demonstrators showed up outside the ICE detention facility to protest federal authorities holding a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy after his father was arrested during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. A picture of the boy standing with federal agents went viral last week, with many on the Left pointing to the incident as an example of ICE cruelty.
The Department of Homeland Security said that the young child was “abandoned” by his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, when Conejo Arias allegedly attempted to flee from federal agents.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” Homeland Security added. “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.”
A Minnesota pastor told CNN that the child’s mother feared going outside to get her child because of ICE’s presence. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, however, said that federal agents “assured [the mother] she would NOT be taken into custody.”
“The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him,” McLaughlin added.
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting the boy and his father.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) blasted ICE and those who support the agency after the story of the 5-year-old boy went viral. Craig claimed that ICE “used” the 5-year-old to “lure his father out.”
“This is the worst of the damn worst,” Craig added. “This is not humanity in Minnesota, folks. If you can look at this 5-year-old and actually with a straight face still support [ICE] and be silent in the face of what the Trump administration and Kristi Noem [are] doing, I just can’t even believe this is America. I will not vote for a damn penny to Kristi Noem or ICE in this Congress.”
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who has opposed President Donald Trump on some issues, has defended ICE in recent weeks. When addressing the Camp East Montana ICE facility in El Paso earlier this month, Cornyn said that people “are treated humanely” at the facility.
The controversy over ICE holding the 5-year-old boy has further inflamed tensions in Minnesota over Trump’s immigration enforcement in the state. Chaos erupted on the streets over the weekend after Border Patrol agents shot and killed anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti. The shooting and the political fallout resulted in President Trump making changes to his strategy in Minnesota, sending his border czar, Tom Homan, to the state to take charge of the operation.
The move effectively sidelined Homeland Security Secretary Noem, and Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was reassigned after leading the Minnesota enforcement operation for the past month.
During a press conference on Thursday, Homan said the Trump administration was working on drafting a “drawdown plan” to reduce the number of immigration agents in Minnesota.
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This article has updated to state that Sen. Cornyn was speaking about an ICE facility in El Paso, not the facility near Dilley, as was previously reported.
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