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ICE detained a Columbia Heights, MN fifth-grader and her family, holding them in a Texas facility unknown to her school for a month

A Valley View Elementary fifth-grader in Columbia Heights, Minnesota stopped attending class in early January 2026, and her family became unreachable, leaving behind a school-issued Chromebook and an empty rental home. On February 4, 2026, Columbia Heights Public Schools disclosed that two classmates had recognized the girl in the cafeteria of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Dilley, Texas family detention center before their own release, and confirmed ICE has detained seven of its students, ages 5 to 17, since a district-area enforcement surge began; five have been released and two, including this girl, remain in custody. The exact date ICE detained the girl and her family has not been publicly established.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Columbia Heights, Minnesota

Abuses documented

Actors

On February 4, 2026, Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota disclosed that a Valley View Elementary fifth-grader who had been missing from class since early January had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with her family and held at ICE's family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The girl stopped attending school in early January 2026; her family became unreachable, her school-issued Chromebook was left behind, and a landlord later found the family's home empty. The district learned of her whereabouts only when two Valley View brothers, themselves detained by ICE and held at the same Dilley facility, recognized her in the detention center's cafeteria shortly before their own release on January 30, 2026.

Superintendent Zena Stenvik said Columbia Heights Public Schools has confirmed ICE has detained seven of its students, ages 5 to 17, since the district's ICE enforcement surge began; five have since been released, while the fifth-grader and one other student remain in custody as of early February. This case is distinct from the district's previously-documented detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father on January 20, 2026 -- a different family caught up in the same enforcement pattern.

The exact date ICE detained the girl and her family has not been established in current reporting; this entry is recorded on the date the detention was publicly disclosed, per the archive's convention for events whose underlying date cannot be confirmed.

Updates

2026-03 — Girl and mother released after 55-day detention, habeas petition [3]

The fifth-grader, later identified as Zuriel, and her mother, Soraya Gualinga, were released from ICE's Dilley, Texas facility after 55 days in custody following a habeas corpus petition arguing their detention was unlawful. Gualinga was fitted with an ankle monitor, and Zuriel returned to her Valley View Elementary classroom in Columbia Heights.

Why we recorded this

Due process and basic notice are supposed to accompany government custody, especially a child's. A Columbia Heights, Minnesota fifth-grader stopped attending school in early January 2026 and her family went unreachable; it took a month, and two classmates who happened to recognize her in a Texas detention-center cafeteria, for her school to learn Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained the family, one of seven students the district says ICE has detained since its enforcement surge began. This archive records the disclosure because a child can vanish into federal detention for a month with no notice to the school responsible for her, discovered only by chance.

Sources

  1. School officials say missing Minneapolis girl seen in ICE detention in Texas — The Irish News (Washington Post wire) primary accessed August 20, 2026
  2. Two Columbia Heights elementary school students detained in Texas facility return to Minnesota — Star Tribune primary accessed August 20, 2026
  3. Twin Cities mom and daughter recount 55-day ordeal in Texas immigration center — CBS News Minnesota (WCCO) primary accessed August 20, 2026

See also