Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has issued a public apology after admitting he misspoke when he claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was targeting US citizens and five-year-old kindergartners instead of violent criminals.
The controversy erupted after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which occurred two weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer, events that have fueled left-wing protests against ICE and its enforcement efforts, according to Daily Mail.
On Monday night, Kerr, a long-time critic of President Donald Trump and his immigration policies, escalated the rhetoric by declaring: It's not like they're rooting out violent criminals... they're taking five-year-old kindergartners and US citizens and detaining people.
Kerr appeared to be alluding to the case of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was taken into federal custody alongside his father and transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center.
Their detention has been used by activists as a rallying point to attack ICE and the broader immigration crackdown, even as the agency continues to focus on individuals who violate federal law.
By Friday, however, Kerr was pressed on his sweeping accusations and conceded that he had helped spread misinformation.
'I definitely misspoke, and I knew that ICE was arresting some criminals,' Kerr acknowledged before Golden States loss to the Detroit Pistons, walking back his earlier broadside against federal agents.
He went on to admit that he regretted his remarks almost immediately, while still attempting to maintain his broader criticism of immigration enforcement. 'I immediately regretted it because I knew that to be the case. My point is that theyre also arresting people and detaining citizens and people who should not be being detained. The manner in which theyre doing it, as you see, is riling everybody up all over the country.'
The Warriors had been scheduled to play the Minnesota Timberwolves last Saturday, but the game was postponed amid unrest following Prettis death. '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 said, suggesting the charged atmosphere contributed to his comments.
Kerr then offered a more direct apology, while pointedly calling on others to correct their own falsehoods. 'I misspoke, and I apologize for the misinformation. I hope everybody else out there whos saying stuff thats not true, please apologize, too... I addressed everything I want to address in Minneapolis.'
He further clarified his position by explicitly disavowing his earlier claim about ICEs conduct. 'That was false what I said and so I want to correct that for the record.'
Meanwhile, reports indicate that young Liam Conejo Ramos is ill and depressed after being detained as he returned home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, last week. A widely shared photograph of the boy in a blue winter hat and Spider-Man backpack has been leveraged by critics of the Trump administration to attack its immigration policies, even as ICE maintains that it is enforcing existing law.
Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are now being held near San Antonio at a facility that has been accused in court filings of civil rights abuses against detained migrants. The episode underscores how quickly inflammatory claims about ICE can spread, and how even high-profile figures like Kerr are now being forced to walk back rhetoric that blurs the line between emotional activism and factual accuracy.
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