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6 days ago
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The ongoing immigration crackdown is recorded by award-winning photographers nationwide. But a widely published photo of a five-year-old boy detained in chilly Minnesota was taken by a bystander, highlighting the role of citizen journalism.
The boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a winter hat with bunny ears, was detained on January 20. He and his father were sent to a federal detention facility in Texas.
“The photographer of that photo has indicated to us that they wish to be referred to as a bystander and have allowed us to share the photo,” said Kristen Stuenkel, Director of Community Education & Communications, Columbia Heights Public Schools.
ive-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained January 20 in a suburb of Minneapolis (Photo Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools)Federal authorities said Liam’s father was a target for immigration enforcement and that criticism prompted by the photo is off base.
Local school officials say immigration agents used Liam as bait. Four children from the Columbia Heights School District have been detained by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the district said in a press release on January 21.
“Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old child, was apprehended with his father while in their driveway, just having arrived home from his Preschool classroom,” the school district said. “Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused. Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running vehicle, led him to the door, and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”
On January 27, a federal judge in Texas ruled that five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father cannot be immediately deported, temporarily blocking the child and his father’s removal from the U.S.
Photo Generates Strong Response
“Photo of a child held by ICE brings focus to moral urgency,” said the headline in The Washington Post on commentary by its art critic Philip Kennicott on January 22.
“In the photograph,” wrote Kennicott, a Pulitzer Prize winner, “the hat functions the way toys or pets function in classic portraits of children, such as Dirck Santvoort’s portrait of small girl with a goldfinch in London’s National Gallery or the tiny lapdog in Mary Cassatt’s ‘Little Girl in a Blue Arm Chair’ in Washington’s National Gallery of Art.”
The editorial board of the Houston Chronicle said the photo of Liam captures “our country’s absurd reality.”
The Chronicle’s editorial refers to a second photo (also taken by a citizen journalist that was made available by the local school district in Columbia Heights, Minnesota): “Another image shows the agent, masked and imposing in all black, his eyes barely visible beneath a baseball cap, escorting the child. Tell us: Who is the real safety risk here?”
Liam Conejo Ramos with blue hat (Photo Courtesy Columbia Heights School District)Citizen Journalism in Minneapolis
Metro Minneapolis has experience with citizen journalism. In 2020, Darnella Frazier was 17 when she videotaped the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis as police restrained him.
“The world needed to see what I was seeing,” she said.
Frazier was awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize (Special Citations and Awards), “highlighting the critical role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice.”
About the author: Ken Klein lives in Silver Spring, Maryland; he is retired after a career in politics, lobbying, and media, including The Associated Press and Gannett in Florida. Klein is an alumnus of Ohio University and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Scripps College of Communication. Professionally, he has worked for Fort Myers News-Press (Gannett), The Associated Press (Tallahassee), Senator Bob Graham, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA).
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