Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has apologized, saying he “misspoke” after claiming that Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) officials were arresting five-year-olds.
Kerr, a frequently outspoken leftist whose press conferences are just as likely to feature passionate anti-2nd Amendment rants as they are talk of basketball, said of ICE on Monday that ‘It’s not like they’re rooting out violent criminals… they’re taking five-year-old kindergartners and US citizens and detaining people.’
On Friday, the typically strident coach found himself in the unfamiliar territory of apologizing after a reporter from OutKick confronted him over his inflammatory comments.
“I definitely misspoke, and I knew that ICE was arresting some criminals,” Kerr said ahead of Golden State’s game against the Detroit Pistons.
“I immediately regretted it because I knew that to be the case. My point is that they’re also arresting people and detaining citizens and people who should not be being detained. The manner in which they’re doing it, as you see, is riling everybody up all over the country.”
Kerr then spoke about the impact it had on him to be in Minnesota to play the Timberwolves last Saturday, when the game was postponed following the shooting of 37-year-old anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti by a federal agent.
“Being in Minneapolis for those four days was incredibly emotional and powerful. It was a very difficult time for all of us. At the end of those four days, it was a pretty emotional time,’ Kerr explained.
“I misspoke, and I apologize for the misinformation. I hope everybody else out there who’s saying stuff that’s not true, please apologize, too… I addressed everything I want to address in Minneapolis.”
The coach then added, “That was false what I said, and so I want to correct that for the record.”
It is presumed that Kerr was referring to the detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. The Department of Homeland Security has objected to the characterization of Ramos’ detainment as “under arrest.”
Liam’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadorian living in the U.S. illegally, was the target of the arrest, not the child. Liam was with his father in a vehicle at the time of the arrest, but was not arrested. The child was cared for by ICE officers while they attempted to complete the arrest of his father, who, at one point, tried to escape on foot, “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.”
Officers then tried to get Liam’s family to take him, but the “people inside refused to take him in and open the door,” according to ICE Deportation Chief Marcos Charles.
Both Liam and his father are currently detained at the Dilley ICE detention center in Texas, a facility designed to house immigrant families with underage children who have been accused of violating federal immigration law.
