A federal judge ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from an immigration detention center in Texas, according to a decision obtained by the broadcaster CNN. The order states that both men be released “as soon as possible” and, at the latest, by Tuesday, while the immigration case works its way through the judicial system.
Liam and his father had been detained for more than a week at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, a unit designed for families. They were taken by immigration agents from a residential driveway in a Minneapolis suburb and transferred about 800 miles to Texas.
The episode gained repercussion after the publication of a photo in which an agent appears holding the boy’s backpack, which intensified criticism of the immigration operations conducted by the Trump administration in the Minneapolis region. According to the local school district, Liam is the fourth child in his network to be removed by immigration agents in a two-week span.. The previous weekend, a minor child was returned to his mother after being detained and sent to Texas with his father.
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Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro visited the boy and his father in the detention unit and said Liam was “very depressed.” According to the parliamentarian, the father reported that his son had been eating little, sleeping more than usual and asking about his mother and schoolmates.
Family members and school authorities accused immigration agents of using the child to try to locate his parents. The superintendent of the local school district said the boy was told to knock on the door of the house to see if there were other adults there. The president of the school board said she witnessed the scene and reported that the father asked that the door not be opened, while another adult offered to stay with the child.
The US Department of Homeland Security presented a different version. In posts on social media, the agency stated that the mother refused to take custody of her son, despite several attempts by agents. According to the department, the father fled when approached, leaving the child alone. The agency also said that the agents followed the father’s desire to keep his son with him and denied that children were used as “bait”.
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An immigration service official stated that agents took care of the boy and tried to reunite him with his family, adding that he was even taken for a meal.
According to the family’s lawyer, Liam and his parents are from Ecuador and legally entered the United States in December 2024, when they presented themselves to border authorities in Texas to request asylum. The Department of Homeland Security classified the father as an illegal immigrant, but he had no criminal history. The defense claims that there are no background records in either the United States or Ecuador.
(com CNN)
