Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by immigration officers in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas, have been released following a judge’s order. They have returned to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro.
The two were detained in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman, confirmed the two had arrived home. She said Castro picked them up from Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them home on Sunday to Minnesota.
The Associated Press emailed the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the father and son’s release. There was no immediate response.
Images of the young boy wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by immigration officers drew outrage about the Trump administration's crackdown in Minneapolis.
Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an “abject lie.” It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.
Castro wrote a letter to Liam while they were on the plane to Minnesota, in which he told the young boy he has “moved the world.”
“Your family, school and many strangers said prayers for you and offered whatever they could do to see you back home,” Castro wrote. A photo of the letter was posted on social media. “Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t your home. America became the most powerful, prosperous nation on earth because of immigrants not in spite of them.”
Photos on Castro’s social media showed Liam wearing his blue bunny hat and with a Pikachu backpack
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., welcomed the boy back to Minnesota, saying in a social media post that he “should be in school and with family — not in detention,” adding, “Now ICE needs to leave.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., posted a photo to social media of her with Liam, his father and Castro in which she is holding Liam’s Spider-Man backpack. “Welcome home Liam,” she posted with two hearts.
Federal judge condemns treatment of child in immigration custody, orders release
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s immigration policies while ordering the release of 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, from immigration custody.
Liam was taken from a running car in his driveway on Jan. 20 by ICE agents as he returned home from preschool. The Department of Homeland Security said his father — the person immigration officers were seeking — had “abandoned the boy.”
School officials said agents used the child “as bait” to try to get the family to open the door of their home, and refused to leave the boy with another adult while pursuing his father.
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Ramos and his father, who entered the U.S. legally to apply for asylum, were taken to an ICE holding facility in Dilley, Texas. A judge has prohibited ICE from deporting them.
Liam’s mother said her son appears to be sick from the food at the facility.
"The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children," said Biery, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton.
"Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer," he added. "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned."
Federal authorities tried to claim that Conejo Arias endangered the child.
"I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien, and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran," Vice President JD Vance said. "Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?"
