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A public school district north of Minneapolis said ICE agents detained four of its students in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old. Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said in a Wednesday news conference that four of the district’s students had been “taken” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent weeks. Two of the students were on their way to school, she said. On Tuesday afternoon, 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were taken into custody by ICE agents in their driveway, just after the child returned home from preschool that day, Stenvik said. She added that another adult who lived in the home and was present at the time of the incident “begged” the agents to let him take care of the kid, but the agents refused. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child.” McLaughlin said that ICE agents were targeting the boy’s father, and that during the arrest, Conejo Arias “fled on foot — abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child” while agents apprehended the father. A bystander took this photo of Conejo Ramos with agents on Tuesday and provided it to the school district, giving them permission to share with the media. (Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools) “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,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.” Taking questions from reporters in Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance spoke about ICE’s detention of a 5-year-old boy in the city earlier this week. “I see the story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old, actually, 5-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, ‘Oh, my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a 5-year-old?’” Vance said. “Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” he said. Marc Prokosch, an immigration attorney representing the family, said he believed both father and son are being held in Texas currently. “I’m exploring whether we file a habeas corpus petition to get him out,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference. “We’d have to actually file that down in Texas now and then, also continuing to look through the family’s overall immigration case, because obviously, Liam doesn’t have his own individual case. It’s the family as a whole.” NBC News reached out to Prokosch for further comment but he did not immediately respond. Stenvik noted that the family involved “is following U.S. legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation.” “Why detain a 5-year-old?” Stenvik asked Wednesday. “You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.” The Columbia Heights Public Schools released a statement saying that 20 minutes after the boy and his father were taken, “the middle school brother came home to a missing dad, a missing little brother, and a terrified mother.” Conejo Ramos is escorted by a federal agent on Tuesday in a photo taken by a bystander who gave the school district permission to share with the media. (Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools) Conejo Ramos’ teacher Ella Sullivan said that his removal has been a shock. “He comes into class every day, and he just brightens the room,” she said. “His friends haven’t asked about him yet, but I know that they’ll catch on, and it’s just a very unfortunate situation. It should not be happening.” Additionally, on Tuesday, Stenvik said a 17-year-old student was removed from their car and “taken by armed, masked…

Federal immigration authorities allowed a suspect in a $100 million jewelry heist believed to be the largest in U.S. history to deport himself to South America in December, a move that stunned and upset prosecutors who were planning to try the case and send him to prison. Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores was one of seven people charged last year with stalking an armored truck to a rural freeway rest stop north of Los Angeles and stealing millions worth of diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches in 2022. Flores faced up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Flores in late December after he requested voluntary departure, prosecutors said in court filings. ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. France Nov 19, 2025 Louvre boosts security with 100 cameras and other measures after heist Museums Nov 9, 2025 Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo Flores’ attorney, John D. Robertson, motioned to dismiss the indictment against his client, asking for the charges to be permanently dropped and the case closed. Federal prosecutors oppose the motion and say they still hope to bring Flores to trial, asking for charges to be dropped “without prejudice” to keep the door open for criminal prosecution in the future. Despite Flores being a lawful permanent resident and released on bail, he was taken into ICE custody in September, according to court filings from his defense attorneys. Federal prosecutors say they were unaware Flores had an immigration detainer. This was a violation of his criminal prosecution rights and warrants his case getting dismissed, Robertson said in his motion. Flores opted for deportation to Chile during a Dec. 16 immigration hearing, according to court documents. The judge denied his voluntary departure application but issued a final order of removal, and he was sent to Ecuador. “Prosecutors are supposed to allow the civil immigration process to play out independently while criminal charges are pending,” federal prosecutors wrote in their motion opposing the case dismissal. “That is exactly what they did in this case — unwittingly to defendant’s benefit in that he will now avoid trial, and any potential conviction and sentence, unless and until he returns to the United States.” What happened to Flores is extremely unusual, especially in a case of this significance, former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson said. The Flying J Travel Center in Lebec, Calif., was the site of the Brinks truck jewelry heist in 2022.Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images file Ordinarily, if a criminal defendant had immigration proceedings against them — which is common — immigration officials would inform prosecutors what was happening. In minor cases, a defendant can sometimes choose to self-deport in lieu of prosecution. “It’s just beyond me how they would deport him without the prosecutors … being in on the conversation,” Levenson said. “This really was the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.” The jewelers who were stolen from are also demanding answers. “When a defendant in a major federal theft case leaves the country before trial, victims are left without answers, without a verdict, and without closure,” Jerry Kroll, an attorney for some of the jewelry companies, told the Los Angeles Times. The infamous jewelry heist unfolded in July 2022 after the suspects scouted the Brink’s tractor-trailer leaving an international jewelry show near San Francisco with dozens of bags of jewels, according to the indictment. While the victims reported more than $100 million in losses, Brink’s said the stolen items were worth less than $10 million. A lawsuit filed by the Brink’s security company said one of the drivers was asleep…

President Donald Trump sued banking giant JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion on Thursday over allegations that JPMorgan stopped providing banking services to him and his businesses for political reasons after he left office in January 2021. The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County court in Florida, alleges that JPMorgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in February 2021 with just 60 days notice and no explanation. By doing so, Trump claims JPMorgan and Dimon cut the president and his businesses off from millions of dollars, disrupted their operations and forced Trump and the businesses to urgently open bank accounts elsewhere. “JPMC debanked (Trump and his businesses) because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” the lawsuit alleges. In the lawsuit, Trump alleges he tried to raise the issue personally with Dimon after the bank started to close his accounts, and that Dimon assured Trump he would figure out what was happening. The lawsuit alleges Dimon failed to follow up with Trump. Further, Trump’s lawyers allege that JPMorgan placed the president and his companies on a reputational “blacklist” that both JPMorgan and other banks use to keep clients from opening accounts with them in the future. In a statement, JPMorgan said it believes the suit has no merit. Trump threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase last week at a time of heightened tensions between the White House and Wall Street. The president said he wanted to cap interest rates on credit cards at 10% to help lower costs for consumers. Chase is one of the largest issuers of credit cards in the country and a bank official told reporters that it would fight any effort by the White House or Congress to implement a rate cap on credit cards. Bank industry executives have also bristled at Trump’s attacks on the independence of the Federal Reserve. Debanking occurs when a bank closes the accounts of a customer or refuses to do business with a customer in the form of loans or other services. Once a relatively obscure issue in finance, debanking has become a politically charged issue in recent years, with conservative politicians arguing that banks have discriminated against them and their affiliated interests. Debanking first became a national issue when conservatives accused the Obama administration of pressuring banks to stop extending services to gun stores and payday lenders under “Operation Choke Point.” Trump and other conservative figures have alleged that banks cut them off from their accounts under the umbrella term of “reputational risk” after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Since Trump came back into office, the president’s banking regulators have moved to stop any banks from using “reputational risk” as a reason for denying service to customers. “JPMC’s conduct … is a key indicator of a systemic, subversive industry practice that aims to coerce the public to shift and re-align their political views,” Trumps lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. Trump accuses the bank of trade libel and accuses Dimon himself of violating Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In its statement, JPMorgan said that it “regrets” that Trump sued the bank but insisted it did not close the accounts for political reasons. “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” a bank spokesperson said. “We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.”

A prominent civil rights attorney and at least one other person involved in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church have been arrested, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday, just as Vice President JD Vance is set to visit the state. Bondi announced the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong in a post on X. On Sunday, protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor. Bondi later posted on X that a second person had been arrested. The Justice Department quickly opened a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month. “Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” the attorney general wrote on X. Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads the local ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who work at least part-time in other jobs. US & World Minnesota 17 hours ago Renee Good was shot in the head, autopsy commissioned by her family finds Immigration 22 hours ago ICE says its officers can forcibly enter homes during immigration operations without judicial warrant: 2025 memo Immigration Jan 21 Court lifts restrictions on immigration officers' tactics in Minnesota Vance threatens the protesters with prison terms Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and prominent local activist, had called for the pastor affiliated with ICE to resign, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.” “You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” she said Tuesday. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renée Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.” Prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have come to the church’s defense, arguing that compassion for migrant families affected by the crackdown cannot justify violating a sacred space during worship. Vance, speaking in Toledo ahead of his Minnesota visit, said the church protesters scared “little kids.” “Those people are going to be sent to prison so long as we have the power to do so. We’re going to do everything we can to enforce the law,” he said. A swift civil rights investigation into the protest but not Good’s death A longtime activist in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, Levy Armstrong has helped lead local protests after the high-profile police-involved killings of Black Americans, including George Floyd, Philando Castile and Jamar Clark. She is a former president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis branch. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a photo on X of Levy Armstrong with her arms behind her back next to a person wearing a badge. Noem said she faces a charge under a statute that bars threatening or intimidating someone exercising a right. FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that Chauntyll Louisa Allen, the second person Bondi said was arrested, is charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship. It’s unclear who Allen’s attorney is. Saint Paul Public Schools, where Allen is a member of the board of education, is aware of her arrest but will not comment on pending legal matters, according to district spokesperson Erica Wacker. The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open a civil rights investigation into…