What Happened
Before dawn on Jan. 6, 2026, ICE agents surrounded the car of Elizabeth and her mother, Rosa Caisaguano Cajilema, as they headed to her school bus stop in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb. The family had fled Ecuador and has an active asylum case. Elizabeth, a 10-year-old fourth grader at Highland Elementary, ended up interpreting between the agents and her Spanish-speaking parents during the stop.
Mother and daughter were flown roughly 1,200 miles to the family detention center in Dilley, Texas — joining at least five other children from Elizabeth’s small school district swept up in the same enforcement wave, including her 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos.
Nearly a month later, amid reports of a measles outbreak at the Dilley facility, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz publicly pressed DHS for her release and a federal judge blocked her deportation. Elizabeth and her mother were freed on Feb. 3 and returned to Minnesota to reunite with her father. Days later, Minnesota school districts and teachers’ unions sued DHS to keep immigration agents away from schools and bus stops.
