Vice President JD Vance confirmed Thursday that a five-year-old boy was among those detained by federal agents during a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, stirring outrage in the northern city and across the US.
As “the father of a five-year-old” himself, Vance acknowledged he was stunned by news of the child’s predicament at first.
I think to myself ‘Oh, my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a five-year-old?’” Vance said Thursday, pivoting to say he then did more research and changed his mind because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained the child after his father ran from immigration agents.
Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
More broadly, Vance blamed local leaders for disorder on a visit to the troubled midwestern state, which has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good on January 7.
The child’s detention came as the US attorney general announced Thursday the arrests of three activists accused of disrupting a St. Paul church service in a protest, accusing a pastor at the church of working for ICE.
