By Staff, Agencies

Federal immigration agents seized a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday and flew them to Texas, according to The Guardian citing court records and the family’s lawyers, in a move widely condemned by civil rights advocates.

The father, identified in court filings as Elvis Joel TE, and his two-year-old daughter were seized returning from a store, and despite a judge’s release order, were flown to a Texas detention facility.

Immigration officials later flew the father and two-year-old back to Minnesota; the child was released to her mother, while the father remains detained, with lawyer Irina Vaynerman calling the ordeal “truly unimaginable” and “beyond words.

Kira Kelley, a lawyer for the family, told The Guardian that immigration agents entered their home without a warrant, smashed the father’s car window with the toddler inside, and refused to let him hand her to her mother; after an emergency petition, a Minnesota federal judge barred their transfer and ordered the girl released, citing her “risk of irreparable harm” and lack of criminal history.

Despite court orders, officials flew the father and daughter to Texas; the father has a pending asylum case, and the child has lived in Minneapolis since birth, lawyers said, while the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] did not explain the transfer.

DHS said agents were on a “targeted enforcement operation” when they identified Elvis Joel TE, calling him an “illegal immigrant” who allegedly reentered the US and drove erratically with a child; the department claimed the mother refused to take the toddler, so agents “took care of the child.”

Vaynerman rejected that account, saying agents prevented the father from returning his daughter to the home.

A crowd gathered during the arrest, and DHS said agents used “crowd control measures,” including chemicals and flash‑bangs.

The incident came two days after ICE detained five-year-old Liam Ramos, prompting lawyer Irina Vaynerman to call the case horrific and warn of lasting psychological harm, while criticizing DHS’s rapid out-of-state transfers as terrorizing.

The family’s lawyers are seeking a court order to block such transfers and protect detainees with pending habeas petitions, denouncing the process as unimaginably cruel.