Fifth grade student who went missing in Minnesota was spotted at ICE center in Texas, school claims

Nearly one month after a Minneapolis fifth grader stopped showing up for class, with no word from her family, the missing girl was seen inside a sprawling immigration detention center in Texas that is holding a growing number of immigrant families.

Officials at Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights told The Washington Post they feared the worst after the girl’s family wasn’t answering calls while her school-issued laptop was sitting in her classroom, untouched, for weeks.

It wasn’t until two of her schoolmates — brothers in second and fifth grade — were released from the same Texas facility this week that the school got word that the missing girl was inside with them.

The brothers were detained in Texas with their mother and recognized the missing girl inside, according to Valley View Elementary’s Jason Kuhlman.

“It was surreal,” he told The Washington Post. “It was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I wonder ... how many kids are MIA?”

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center reportedly holds more than 1,000 families, including young children, according to lawyers and advocates representing immigrants inside.

Recent detainees from Minneapolis include five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and two-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, along with their fathers. Liam and his father Adrian Conejo Arias were ordered released from the facility last week, and Chloe was ordered to the custody of a family attorney, but their cases have fueled outrage against the Trump administration’s expansive efforts to arrest and quickly remove thousands of people from the country.

The children were among at least seven students from the same school district detained by federal agents in recent weeks, ranging in age from five to 17 years old, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Colombia Heights Public Schools.

Speaking to The Independent, she said students and their teachers and families feel “hunted.”

“We have had several ICE agents driving up and down, and around our schools, circling throughout the day over the last few weeks,” she said. “We feel under siege.”

Staff members are stationed at every corner of the school during arrival and dismissal times, teachers walk children from at-risk communities to school, and ride-share programs support families with parents who are too afraid to do the journey to school. Dozens of students are now learning online because they are too afraid to leave their homes.

“This is not political. This is about little humans wanting to come to school,” Kuhlman told The Independent last week.

“Education is being interfered with — kids can’t learn,” he said. “Racial profiling, terrorizing families and children, pulling Black and Brown people out of cars: I call it a snatch and grab.”

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An 11-year-old girl from the same district was released from the Dilley center this week.

After nearly one month in custody, Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano and her mother were released from the facility Tuesday, according to Stenvik.

“We are filled with joy at the anticipation of the family when Elizabeth’s father can once again be reunited with his daughter and wife,” she said in a statement.

The girl had been locked up with her mother since January 6, when federal officers captured them on their way to school.

“We seek the full release of all children and unjustly detained parents from detention centers across our country,” Stenvik said. “We seek a diplomatic and peaceful solution to end this terror that the enhanced immigration enforcement is causing in our community, our state and our county.”

Elizabeth’s release follows reports of a measles outbreak at the facility, which was locked down over the weekend with quarantine measures for anyone “suspected of making contact with the infected,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE reported at least two “active measles infections” among detainees and ceased “all movement” inside.

While the federal government does not publicly disclose information about children in immigration custody, data from advocacy groups, attorneys and investigative news organizations suggest that a growing number of those detainees are children.

“No one in ICE custody is missing” as detainees are searchable online and can contact their families by phone, according to Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates,” McLaughlin said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.”