With a quote from Benjamin Franklin, another from Thomas Jefferson and two biblical references, a federal judge in Texas ordered this Saturday that the five-year-old boy Liam Conejo Ramos be released from the immigration center in the town of Dille, in the south of the Lone Star State. He was held there with his father, Adrián Conejo Arias, after the arrest of both on January 22 in Minneapolis by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service) in an operation whose images went around the world as an example of the brutality of
an appointment by Bill Clinton, demands the release of the Ecuadorian boy and his father before Tuesday. The short text ends with an emotion unbecoming of a legal brief, after the judge warns that “ultimately, due to the complex immigration system of the United States, petitioners could return to their country of origin, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But this result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than what currently exists.”
Next, Biery cites a famous quote from Franklin that has been heard a lot since Trump returned to power with his authoritarian overtones: “Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: ‘Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?’ ‘A republic,’ if they can keep it.” The magistrate signs “with his judicial finger on the constitutional dam.” And in closing, it reproduces a photo of the little boy who went around the world. In it, he is seen with a teary face, scared, dressed in a hat that is too big for him and a Spiderman backpack, which was apparently his favorite and that was taken from him in the detention center. A masked agent grabs him from behind. Below the image are quotes to two verses from the New Testament: “Matthew 19:14” and “John 11:35.”
Jefferson’s part refers to a list of complaints that he made “against a king with the nascent nation. Among others, the following: “He has sent a multitude of officials here to harass our people. It has fomented internal insurrection among us. It has garrisoned large bodies of armed troops. He has maintained among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures.” “We, the people, hear echoes of that history,” concludes the judge.
The lawsuit names, among others, the secretary of the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons. “The case has its origins in the government’s ill-conceived and incompetently implemented pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it means traumatizing children,” Biery considers in his writing. “This court and other courts regularly send undocumented people to prison and order their deportation, but they do so following proper legal procedures.”
A couple of paragraphs later, the magistrate writes, after admonishing the Trump Administration a couple of times: “it confirms that, for some of us, the perfidious thirst for unlimited power and the imposition of cruelty in its pursuit know no borders and lack all human decency. Thus the rule of law is only cursed.”
More minors
Four minors were detained on January 22, the same day as Liam, in the Columbia Heights school district, in Minneapolis, by ICE, as part of Operation Metro Surge, with which the Trump Administration has sent three thousand agents to Minnesota to combat irregular immigration. These agents have killed two people in this time: American citizens Renée Good, a poet, and Alex Pretti, a nurse. They were both 37 years old.
from home when the boy returned from school. The agents, according to the educational authorities, tried to use the child as bait to also take the mother, who was inside the house with another child. She had to make the impossible decision between going out and comforting little Liam or not opening the door and avoiding deportation.
The family came from Ecuador in 2024. And they are legally in the United States, waiting for an asylum request to be answered, according to their lawyers. Immigration authorities maintain that the permit expired last April.
A group of congressmen, including Joaquín Castro of Texas, visited the center to evaluate its conditions and also met with the boy’s father. According to Ramos, he told them that his son “is not the same” after the arrest. His defense has denounced that the conditions in the detention center are terrible: water in poor condition, often not drinkable, and food containing insects, dirt and other remains.
This week in Minneapolis two more children were arrested, according to the board.
