It’s been well over 24 hours since Trump administration officials debunked the media narrative that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had “arrested” a five-year-old boy in Minneapolis. The truth, of course, was that the little boy’s father, an illegal alien, abandoned his son – in frigid temperatures, no less – after they were approached by the agents, and the agents then took care of the little guy.
As RedState reported on Thursday, both the Department of Homeland Security and Vice President JD Vance schooled the obtuse media on what really happened. Here’s Vance after being confronted by a testy reporter in Minneapolis:
Well, I did a little bit more follow up research, and what I find is that the five-year-old was not arrested [and] that his dad was an illegal alien. And when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. So, the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old, [but] what are they supposed to do? 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?
Even with the truth out there, the media and other leftist agitators spent Thursday and Friday perpetuating the lie that ICE was preying on children. Well, ICE officials have now set the record straight: the boy was, indeed, abandoned by his father and cared for by ICE agents … and his family didn’t want him when officials attempted to return him to his home.
READ MORE: JD Vance Schools Media After Reporter Pushes Debunked ‘5-Year-Old Arrested by ICE’ Hoax
Watch: Bovino Urges Press to Cover Real Child Crisis at the Border
Here’s Marcos Charles, Acting Executive Associate Director of ICE ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations), who joined Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino at a Friday press conference. Charles blasted local politicians and activists for “spreading fear in their own communities by creating a false narrative about what we do and who we are – and who we arrest.” The media, he said, was no better through its efforts “to deceive the American public about ICE and our operations.”
Charles then proceeded to lay out the full truth of what happened.
This week, ICE ERO conducted targeted enforcement operations to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien who was released back into the interior of the United States by the previous administration. When officers approached Conejo Arias, he and his child were in a vehicle. Arias fled from law enforcement on foot, abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.
One of our officers stayed behind with that child while other officers apprehended his father. After conducting the arrest, my officers stayed with the child – they care for him, took him to get something to eat at a drive-thru restaurant, and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of.
Again, my officers did that, not his father.
My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family. Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in an open the door.
First, the father abandons him, then the family won’t open the door and take him in. Absolutely heartbreaking what that little boy is having to go through because the grown-ups in his life are making bad decisions.
Here’s ICE’s Charles:
WATCH: ICE EAD Marcos Charles exposes the activists’ lies and media smears surrounding the case of the 5-year-old boy.
ICE encountered the boy’s father, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador, who fled from our officers and left his young son behind in the freezing cold,… pic.twitter.com/SLyuFf9rVA
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) January 23, 2026
WATCH: ICE EAD Marcos Charles exposes the activists’ lies and media smears surrounding the case of the 5-year-old boy.
ICE encountered the boy’s father, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador, who fled from our officers and left his young son behind in the freezing cold, ABANDONING him. The boy’s family even refused to take him into their house. Our officers ensured the boy’s safety regardless.
What the media won’t tell you is that after ICE detained the father, our officers spent time with the young boy — even taking him through a drive-through for some food — before reuniting him with his father.
The smears against our officers and this agency are relentless and continue to put our personnel at greater risk of attack. It must end.
Charles revealed that the agents were heartbroken “to see the boy’s own family leave him behind.” The child was eventually reunited with his father, and the two are now being cared for at a family residential center pending their immigration proceeding.
The truth, of course, will never make into the national narrative because it demolishes the lie the media is directed to push. And that’s the real scandal here, not the men and women who stopped a child from freezing to death and who cared for him when his own family would not.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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