ICE Detainee, 5, Goes Home
Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, is detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after arriving home from preschool on Jan. 20 in a Minneapolis suburb. (Ali Daniels via AP)
A 5-year-old boy and his father who were held at a Texas immigration detention facility returned to Minneapolis on Sunday after a federal judge ordered their release.
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, asylum seekers from Ecuador, flew back from San Antonio under a court order requiring their release from the Dilley detention center by Feb. 3.
“I’m happy to finally be going home,” Conejo Arias told ABC News. He said Liam was especially eager to reunite with his mother and brother.
The pair were detained Jan. 20 by immigration agents outside their Minneapolis-area home shortly after Liam returned from preschool. They were later transferred to a federal facility in Texas despite having a pending asylum claim and no deportation order.
In a ruling issued Saturday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery criticized the government’s handling of the case, writing that it appeared to stem from a poorly executed effort to meet deportation quotas “even if it requires traumatizing children.” The Department of Homeland Security disputed that characterization.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not target a child but conducted a “targeted operation” to arrest Conejo Arias, whom she described as an “illegal alien” previously released into the U.S. during the Biden administration.
Biery noted that the family could still be removed to Ecuador but said any such action should occur under a more “orderly and humane” process.
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, picked up the father and son from the detention center Saturday night and accompanied them home Sunday, according to his office and the Associated Press.
Conejo Arias described detention conditions as “not great,” saying Liam became ill and was not given medication because staff said none was available. He said he hopes to remain in the U.S. with his family due to fears about returning to Ecuador and noted that his first asylum hearing is scheduled for later this month.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota welcomed Liam home in a social media post, writing that the child “should be in school and with family—not in detention,” and added, “Now ICE needs to leave.”
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