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Elvis Joel Tipan-Echeverria and his 2-year-old daughter, Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, were stopped and detained by ICE officers in Minneapolis at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22
Seven hours later, a judge ruled that ICE return the toddler to the family's attorney and keep both in Minnesota
Twenty minutes later, ICE confirmed the father and daughter were then placed on a commercial flight to Texas
A man and his 2-year-old daughter were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in south Minneapolis on Thursday, Jan. 22, and transported to a Texas detention center hours later.
Elvis Joel Tipan-Echeverria and his daughter, Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, both Ecuadorian immigrants, were driving home from a grocery store when ICE stopped them, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez said onInstagramon Jan. 22.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Tipan-Echeverria and a child were taken into custody, according toNBC News. DHS has not shared the child's identity.
"A suspicious vehicle followed her father's vehicle home, broke his window and kidnapped them," Chavez alleged. "No judicial warrant was provided."
The two were detained at 1 p..m. during a "targeted enforcement operation," DHS said,ABC 5reports.
The agency alleged that Tipan-Echeverria had illegally "committed felony reentry" into the country after being previously removed, per NBC News.
An attorney for the family, Kira Kelley, said both Tipan-Echeverria and Tipan Villacis have active asylum claims and neither has a final order of removal. Kelley alleged that the agents did not present a warrant.
DHS claimed that Tipan-Echeverria was "driving erratically with a child in the vehicle," and that after he parked the vehicle, "he refused multiple lawful commands to open his door or lower his window."
Tipan-Echeverria was taken into custody, DHS said.
At the time of arrest, a crowd of approximately 120 people surrounded the agents and threw rocks and garbage cans at them, prompting the agents to take crowd-control measures, DHS alleged, according toThe Star Tribune.
"DHS law enforcement took care of the child who the mother would not take," DHS said. However, Kelley said agents allegedly refused to allow Tipan-Echeverria to bring Tipan Villacis to her mother.
The woman and other family members stayed inside the home because they were "terrified" of the ICE agents, the affidavit alleged, according to ABC 5.
Following the detention, Kelley filed an emergency petition around 5:37 p.m. and requested their release, the affidavit read, according to ABC 5. Then, around 6:30, she filed a motion to stop the transfer of the toddler outside Minnesota and to order the release of the girl.
Kelley said she called ICE counsel, but didn't hear back. Less than two hours later, around 8:10 p.m., U.S. District Judge Kathy Menendez ordered ICE not to remove the two from Minnesota, and the toddler would be returned to Kelley no later than 9:30 p.m., per the affidavit, according to ABC 5.
However, at 8:30 p.m., ICE told the court that the two were placed on a commercial flight to Texas. A government attorney responded, saying ICE would return the girl to Minnesota on Friday, Jan. 23.
"To me, that is clearly part of this effort to try to evade the court's jurisdiction," another attorney for the family, Irina Vaynerman, toldThe Star Tribune."We have never seen this level of depravity with a 2-year-old."
As of Friday evening, Tipan-Echeverria was still listed as housed at an ICE detention facility, but information about his daughter was not available in the ICE Detainee Locator System because she is under the age of 18.
Vaynerman said the girl was reunited with her mother on Jan. 23, but no additional details have been shared, perThe Star Tribune.
The detainment follows ICE agents detainingLiam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, in their driveway after returning home from the child's preschool on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
These incidents come amid denials from DHS that the agencyseparates families.
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PEOPLE reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the family's attorneys for comment. AGoFundMepage was created to help the family with unexpected bills.
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