Ecuadorians are at the center of Minneapolis immigration dramas

Ecuadorians are making news in the U.S. but it’s not the kind of publicity they or their families wanted.

Last week, the photo of a five-year-old Ecuadorian boy appeared in news stories around the world after he and his father were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they returned home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Five-year-old Liam Ramos, an Ecuador native, was taken from his home in Minneapolis with his father January 20, and is being held in an ICE processing center in Texas.

On Saturday, a Minneapolis hospital nurse was killed by ICE agents after he recorded a cell phone video of the agents preparing to arrest another Ecuadorian migrant.

Several other interactions between Ecuadorians and ICE are also making the news in the U.S., including the detentions of migrants with green card status and even citizenship.

Saturday night, Ecuador’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it is monitoring the situation of Ecuadorians “in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the U.S.” and is in contact with U.S. authorities. In the case of five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father Adrián Alexander Conejo, the ministry reports that the two are being held together in a Texas processing center. “Both father and son have officially applied for asylum status and their case will be heard next week in court,” it said. “We have talked to the father, Adrián Alexander Conejo, and he and Liam are in good condition.”

The ministry said it talked to the child’s mother, who remains in Minneapolis with legal immigration status, but she has requested no assistance.

The ministry said it has had no communication with U.S. officials regarding the status of José Huerta, the Ecuadorian target of Saturday’s ICE operation that resulted in the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen. ICE said Huerta was wanted on charges of domestic violence, disorderly conduct and unpaid traffic fines.

Videos show Pretti approaching ICE agents with his cell phone, then being tackled and subdued before he was shot seven times. According to Minneapolis police, Pretti was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.

In another widely publicized case, Manta native Maria Hurtado was pulled over by ICE agents Thursday on her way to work. She claims the agents refused to look at documents showing her legal status but instead forced her to drive home to a Minneapolis suburb where her husband and two small children were ordered out of their home and taken into detention with Hurtado.

Hurtado’s attorney Brian Clark said ICE has refused to tell him where the family was taken although he believes it is to Texas. “They don’t tell me anything despite the fact they are aware the family has legal status in the U.S.,” he told a Minneapolis television reporter. “The situation reminds me of Nazi Germany, something I never expected in America.”