Lawmakers See Boy, 5, Taken to Texas by ICE
In this image provided by US Rep. Joaquin Castro, Castro, left, visits with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 28. 2026. (Rep. Joaquin Castro via AP)
Democratic Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett visited a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father at a Texas federal detention center on Wednesday, in a case that has drawn criticism of President Trump’s immigration policies and fueled calls from Democrats and advocacy groups for changes to ICE’s practices.
The lawmakers met with Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, for about 30 minutes in a courtroom at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, near San Antonio, according to the Associated Press. Outside the facility, Texas state police confronted demonstrators supporting the detainees, using pepper balls to disperse the crowd.
Castro said Liam’s father reported that the boy has been sleeping a lot and asking about his mother and classmates, expressing a desire to return to school. “I would ask President Trump, who has grandkids of the same age as some of the children we met today, to imagine what it would be like for his own grandchildren to be behind bars,” Castro said during a news conference afterward, where he and other Democrats called for the release of Liam and other detainees.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Liam and his father on January 20 in Minneapolis as part of a large-scale operation that has prompted protests across the city. A widely circulated photo shows the boy wearing a blue winter hat and a Spider-Man backpack during his detention.
Castro described Liam as “emblematic of the monstrosity of the ICE and detention system.” Some neighbors and school officials said federal officers used the preschooler as “bait” by asking him to knock on the door so his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security called this characterization “an abject lie,” stating that the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle.
On Monday, a federal judge issued a temporary order preventing the Trump administration from deporting Liam and his father while their detention is legally challenged. Crockett said the children held in such facilities are not receiving an education. “We are supposed to be better than this,” she said.
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