ICE detains 2-Year-Old girl, sends her to Texas despite court order

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained a 2-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis before sending her on a plane to Texas, in a violation of a federal court order.

Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez reported Thursday on social media that ICE agents had taken the 2-year-old girl and her father into custody.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the detention, identifying the pair as Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria and his daughter, Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis.

Court records and statements from the family’s lawyers describe a frightening scene. As the father and daughter arrived home on Thursday, ICE agents entered their backyard and driveway without a warrant, according to Kira Kelley, one of the family’s attorneys. One agent smashed the glass window of the father’s car while the toddler was inside.

“The mother was by the door and stepped inside the house as the agents approached … The agents refused to allow the father to bring his daughter to the mother or other family members waiting terrified inside the home,” Kelley wrote in court filings.

The father and daughter were then placed in an ICE vehicle that lacked a car seat, Kelley said. Lawyers quickly filed an emergency petition demanding the child’s release.

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A federal judge in Minnesota issued an order around 8:10 p.m. prohibiting the government from transferring them out of the state.

Soon after, the judge issued a second order directing ICE to immediately release the girl into Kelley’s temporary custody, which the child’s mother had authorized.

The judge emphasized the urgency, citing the “risk of irreparable harm” and noting that the toddler had no criminal history. “Needless to say, she has no criminal history,” the judge wrote.

Despite the court order, ICE placed the father and daughter on a flight to Texas around 8:30 p.m., the family’s lawyers said.

Officials later returned them to Minnesota, releasing the girl into her mother’s custody. The father remains detained in the state, Irina Vaynerman, another family lawyer, said on Friday.

“The horror is truly unimaginable,” Vaynerman said. “The depravity of all of this is beyond words.”

The incident follows the recent detention of five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota, which drew international outrage and intensified criticism of the US administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

Earlier this month, two children were detained, while a 10-year-old girl was taken by ICE agents two weeks ago as she was on her way to school with her mother.

Protesters are staging rallies against ICE after Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of 3, was killed in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Local leaders have denounced ICE's presence in Minnesota, with Minneapolis' Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey telling the agency to “get the f‑‑‑ out of Minneapolis.”

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