A 2-year-old girl was taken into ICE custody with her father on Thursday in Minneapolis and flown to Texas before she was returned to her mother Friday afternoon, a family lawyer said.
The child’s transfer to Texas took place despite a court order requiring her immediate release, according to the affidavit filed by the family attorney. The toddler’s father, identified as Elvis Tipan-Echeverria, remains in custody, the family’s attorney Kira Kelley told CNN Friday evening.
The father and daughter were on the same flight returning to Minnesota on Friday afternoon, Kelley said. “The child is out of detention as of this afternoon, and recovering from this horrific ordeal,” Kelley said.
The toddler and her father were initially being held at a federal facility in Minneapolis on Thursday after agents pursued their vehicle in a “targeted enforcement operation,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN Friday. Lawyers for the family identified that facility as the Whipple Federal Building. The building has served as the backdrop of tense standoffs between agents and protesters following the death of Minneapolis resident Renee Good earlier this month.
The father and the toddler, identified only as C.R.T.V. in court documents, are citizens of Ecuador, and the child has lived in Minneapolis “since her arrival in the United States as a newborn” and has a pending asylum application.
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