Kamala Harris Slams ICE Over Detention of Five-Year-Old Child in Texas

In a post on X, Harris said the child should be at home with the family and “not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center.” She added, “I am outraged, and you should be too.”

Responding to Harris’s remarks, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, rejected the allegation that ICE used the child as bait. In a post on X, she said the ICE operation conducted on January 20 was aimed at arresting the child’s father.

According to McLaughlin, the father abandoned the child during the operation, and ICE officers made several attempts to get the child’s mother to take custody. She claimed officers assured the mother that she would not be detained, but she refused to accept custody of the child.

McLaughlin said the father informed ICE officers that he wanted the child to remain with him. During the operation, she added, agitators gathered at the scene, shouting and blowing horns, which frightened the child.

“Our officers’ primary concern during the entire operation was the safety and welfare of the child,” McLaughlin said. She stated that officers followed the father’s wishes, ensured the child’s comfort, bought him food, and played his favourite music. She added that the father and child are currently together at a facility in Dilley, Texas.

McLaughlin further said parents are given the option to be removed along with their children or have their children placed with a safe person designated by them. She said this policy is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement practices.

She also highlighted the CBP Home app, saying parents can choose voluntary departure, receive a free flight, and $2,600, and retain the opportunity to return through legal immigration pathways.

Meanwhile, citing Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, CNN reported that the pre-schooler was removed from the family’s running car. CNN said the child and family are originally from Ecuador and had presented themselves to border officers in Texas in December 2024 to apply for asylum.

The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said during a press conference that the family entered the US legally and is pursuing a lawful asylum process. “These are not illegal aliens. They came properly. They came legally, and are pursuing a legal pathway,” he said.