“The Columbia Heights Public School district says federal agents have detained four of its students in four separate incidents over the last two weeks,” reports MPR News. “One child is a 5-year-old boy who attends a district elementary school and was used as ‘bait’ to draw family members out of their home.” The father and child have since been sent to Texas. Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said the boy’s family has an “active asylum case” with no deportation orders. 

Volunteers who are delivering groceries to families report being followed by ICE, KARE 11 reports, and “some local food shelves say that ICE agents are targeting their locations and scaring away people.” Twin Cities Food Justice Executive Director Ann Hill said “she and her volunteers have been tailed by ICE, and that agents have even shown up at her residence because some of the delivery vans they use are registered in her name.” 

“U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino lobbed a smoke canister [at protesters] at Mueller Park in the Lowry Hill East neighborhood,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. “Just a short while earlier and about a mile away, near West 28th Street and Blaisdell Avenue, agents held a person to the ground as they sprayed a bright orange chemical irritant directly into their face.”

A number of businesses will be closed on Friday, Jan. 23 as part of a general strike that is being called “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom.” Bring Me The News has an evolving (and long) list of participating businesses. 

The post ICE detains 5-year-old boy and father; child used as ‘bait’  appeared first on MinnPost.

This post was shared from MinnPost.