ICE Detains Father And 2-Year-Old In Minneapolis; Officials, Witnesses Offer Conflicting Accounts

MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. immigration agents detained a father and his 2-year-old daughter in south Minneapolis on Thursday, a Minneapolis City Council member said, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that the father has been taken into federal custody.

Council member Jason Chavez identified the father as Elvis Joel Tipan-Echeverria and the child as Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, saying the pair were returning from a grocery trip when they were stopped. A DHS spokesperson confirmed Tipan-Echeverria was detained while driving with a child but noted the agency did not disclose the child’s name, age or gender in its public statement.

“A suspicious vehicle followed her father’s vehicle home, broke his window and kidnapped them,” Chavez wrote on Instagram, a description he reiterated to reporters while meeting with the family Thursday evening.

In a public statement, DHS described Tipan-Echeverria as “an illegal immigrant from Ecuador who committed felony reentry.” The agency said officers believed he had been driving erratically with a child in the vehicle and that agents took him into custody after he refused multiple lawful commands to open his door or lower his window.

DHS said agents "took care of the child who the mother would not take" and that the father and child were later reunited at a federal facility. The child’s mother could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to DHS, roughly 120 bystanders surrounded agents during the apprehension, blocking exits and throwing rocks and trash cans toward the officers and the child; DHS said crowd-control measures were then used. Local officials and witnesses have offered accounts that differ in some details from DHS’s description, and community members have expressed alarm about how children have been handled during recent detentions.

Context And Related Cases

The detention came days after a widely reported case in which ICE detained a 5-year-old, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, drawing protests and international attention. DHS previously said Liam’s mother refused to take the child at the time the father was detained; a local school board chair who witnessed that detention disputed that account, saying she heard an adult inside the home begging agents to leave the child.

Both arrests occurred amid an expanded federal operation in Minnesota. The federal government says more than 3,000 immigration personnel have been deployed to the state since December as part of "Operation Metro Surge," and DHS has reported approximately 3,000 apprehensions in the region in recent weeks. Officials say the surge followed scrutiny sparked by a viral video alleging widespread fraud at child care centers owned by members of Minnesota’s Somali community and a Justice Department probe into an alleged fraud scheme.

Local officials and community advocates continue to press for additional information about Thursday’s stop, seeking clarity on procedures used during the arrest and the handling of the child. The initial reporting on the incident was published by NBC News.