The BBC may risk a fresh clash with the White House after being accused of lying about a five-year-old boy being “detained” by immigration authorities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers took in Liam Ramos after his illegal migrant father “abandoned” him on the family driveway, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The father and son were then transported from Minneapolis to a detention centre in Texas, hundreds of miles south.
Images of Liam standing by a car, wearing a fluffy hat, have since helped whip up a frenzy over his detention.
Top Democrats have accused Ice officers of “detaining a five-year-old child and using them as bait”, branding them “sick monsters”.
Hillary Clinton accused the organisation of “terrorising a population” and “using children as pawns”.
Then, the BBC published a story headlined “Ice detains five-year-old during Minnesota operation” – sparking a bitter response from Ice itself.
“All the BBC does is lie,” it said. “Ice did not, and has never ‘used a child as bait’. The child was ABANDONED.”
Ice officers ‘detained’ Liam Ramos after his illegal migrant father ‘abandoned’ him on the family driveway
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COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
It went on to confirm that on January 20, agents carried out a “targeted operation” to arrest the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias – an “illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the US by the Biden administration”.
It said Mr Conejo Arias fled on foot before abandoning his child.
“For the child’s safety, one of our Ice officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” a statement continued.
“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.”
AMERICA’S MIGRANT CRISIS – READ MORE:
Ice blasted that ‘all the BBC do is lie’ after the broadcaster published a story about the boy
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PA
Vice President JD Vance has since weighed in on the storm.
“I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis,” he said. “I see this story – and I am a father of a five-year-old actually, a five-year-old little boy.
“I think to myself: ‘Oh my God, this is terrible – how did we arrest a five-year-old?’
“Well I do a little bit more follow-up research and what I find is that the five-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien, and then when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran.
JD Vance has weighed in on the storm
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GETTY
“So the story is that ‘Ice detained a five-year-old’. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, said he believed the father and son were together in detention.
Mr Prokosch said the family had an active asylum case – but there was no deportation order against them.
Late last year, the BBC found itself on the receiving end of a multi-billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from Donald Trump after broadcasting a documentary which spliced together two parts of the President’s speech.
The edited clip made it look as if Mr Trump was directly inciting supporters to riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The BBC is now taking legal steps to try and force the lawsuit to be dismissed.
GB News has approached the BBC for comment regarding Ice’s statement.
