A 5-year-old boy was detained by ICE with his father, a pending asylum seeker, after being used as bait at their home in Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026.

A 5-year-old boy in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, was detained by ICE agents along with his father, a non-citizen from Ecuador with an active asylum case, after arriving home from preschool on January 20, 2026. School officials reported agents took the child from a car and instructed him to knock on the door, a tactic described as using a minor as “bait.” The father fled on foot, and both were later held together in a family detention facility in Texas. This incident is part of a pattern, with four students from the same school district detained in recent weeks, prompting concerns over the impact on immigrant families and school attendance.