ICE Detains Minnesota Father and 2-Year-Old, Flies Them To Texas After Judge Ordered Child Returned

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Elvis Joel Tipan-Echeverria and his 2-year-old daughter, Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, in south Minneapolis on Jan. 22, then transported them to a Texas detention facility later that night, according to local officials and court filings.

The pair, both Ecuadorian nationals, were stopped at about 1:00 p.m. while driving home from a grocery store, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez said on Instagram. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson confirmed Tipan-Echeverria and a child were taken into custody, though DHS did not publicly identify the child.

Conflicting Accounts: DHS characterized the encounter as a "targeted enforcement operation," alleging Tipan-Echeverria had committed felony reentry after a prior removal and that he was "driving erratically with a child in the vehicle" and refused repeated commands to open his door. The agency also reported that roughly 120 people gathered at the scene and that officers faced projectiles, prompting crowd-control measures, according to The Star Tribune.

The family's attorney, Kira Kelley, disputed DHS's account. Kelley said both father and daughter have active asylum claims and neither has a final order of removal. She also alleged that ICE agents did not show a judicial warrant before taking them into custody.

"A suspicious vehicle followed her father’s vehicle home, broke his window and kidnapped them,"

— Council member Jason Chavez, describing the family's account of the stop.

After the detention, Kelley filed an emergency petition at about 5:37 p.m. seeking release and then filed a motion at roughly 6:30 p.m. asking a federal court to bar any transfer of the child outside Minnesota and to order the child's release to the family's attorney.

According to an affidavit cited by ABC 5, U.S. District Judge Kathy Menendez issued an order at about 8:10 p.m. directing that neither the father nor the child be removed from Minnesota and that the toddler be returned to the family's attorney no later than 9:30 p.m. Less than half an hour later, ICE notified the court that the father and child had been placed on a commercial flight to Texas.

The family's lawyers called the move an apparent attempt to evade the court's jurisdiction. Attorney Irina Vaynerman told The Star Tribune, "We have never seen this level of depravity with a 2-year-old." A government attorney later told the court the child would be returned to Minnesota the following day, Jan. 23.

By Friday evening Tipan-Echeverria remained listed in ICE's detention system as housed at an ICE facility; the child's location was not publicly listed because the Detainee Locator System does not show individuals under 18. Vaynerman said the toddler was reunited with her mother on Jan. 23, though few public details have been released.

This incident followed a similar case two days earlier in which ICE detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, after returning from preschool on Jan. 20. The two cases have renewed public scrutiny of ICE practices and official denials from DHS that its enforcement results in family separations.

People magazine and local outlets such as ABC 5 and The Star Tribune reported on the case; People said it reached out to DHS and the family's attorneys for comment. A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family with unexpected expenses related to the detainment.