Liam Conejo, the five-year-old Ecuadorian boy who was detained with his father by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service) agents on January 20, left the detention center in the town of Dilley, south of San Antonio, where he was being held this Sunday. Both boarded a plane to Minneapolis, the city where they live while they wait for the decision on whether the United States will grant them asylum. On Saturday,
The news was broken by ABC News, which published an exclusive video in which the boy is seen hugging his father. “I am happy to finally be able to return home,” the father declared to the television reporter.
Fred Biery is a federal judge appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. On Saturday he issued an order that harshly dealt with the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. The images of Liam Conejo’s arrest went around the world as an example of the brutality of
The order contained a quote from Benjamin Franklin, another from Thomas Jefferson and two biblical references, and ordered the release of the Ecuadorian boy and his father, Adrián Conejo, before Tuesday.
The text says: “confirms that, for some of us, the perfidious thirst for unlimited power and the imposition of cruelty in its pursuit know no boundaries and lack all decency. Thus the rule of law is only cursed.” It also recognizes 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 that currently exists.”
Franklin’s quote is famous, and has been heard repeatedly since Trump returned to power with an authoritarian tone: “Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: ‘Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?’ ‘A republic,’ if they can keep it.” The magistrate chose to reproduce a closing 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 he made “against a king before the Revolutionary War. 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. It has maintained standing armies in times of peace without the consent of our legislatures.” The judge writes that today in the United States “echoes of that history” can be heard.
Noem, Bondi and Lyons
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 others regularly send undocumented people to prison and order their deportation, but they do so following proper legal procedures.”
Four minors were detained 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.
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 a difficult decision. Either he went out to comfort little Liam or he stayed inside to avoid deportation.
The family came from Ecuador in 2024. They entered through a app enabled by the Biden Administration that allowed regular arrival to the country. They are legally in the United States, awaiting a response to an asylum request, according to their lawyers. Immigration authorities maintain that the permit expired last April. The Conejos assure that they have not received a deportation order.
A group of congressmen – including Joaquín Castro, who represents the Texas district where the detention center is located – visited the facility and also met with the boy’s father. According to Castro, he told them that his son “is not the same” after the arrest. His defense has denounced the poor conditions in the detention center.
This week in Minneapolis two more children were arrested, according to the board.
