Camilla Jessen
A case that drew national attention has reached a turning point after weeks of legal battles and public concern.
Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been released from custody and returned to Minneapolis with his father, Adrian Conejo Arias.
The pair boarded a plane from Texas to Minnesota on Sunday, February 1, according to footage obtained by ABC News.
“I’m happy to finally be going home,” Adrian said as he carried his sleeping son onto the aircraft.
Liam and his father had been held since January 20, when ICE agents detained them in their driveway after the boy returned home from preschool.
Judge’s ruling
Their release followed an order from Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas, who directed that they be freed from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.
In the written order, Biery criticised what he called an “ill-conceived and incompetently government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” according to The New York Times.
He also referred to what he described as the “government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence,” adding: “And the rule of law be damned.”
Health concerns
Before the release, concerns had been raised about Liam’s condition in detention.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, told the Huffington Post that the child was “not doing great.”
“He’s been ill,” she said. “I’ve been told he has a fever.”
Liam’s mother, Erika Ramos, told MPR News that her son had stomach pain, vomiting and a fever, and no longer wanted to eat.
Political response
Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro visited the detention center days before the release.
He later wrote on X that Liam was not in a physical emergency but had been “sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad.”
He added that “the whole country’s been worried about him,” including his schoolmates and teachers.
Disputed account
Stenvik previously alleged that ICE agents asked Liam to knock on his home’s door to see if anyone else was inside, describing it as “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.”
She said the family had an active asylum case and no deportation order.
The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, told The Guardian: “They did not come here illegally. They are not criminals.”
The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE did not target the child, stating it is policy to ask parents if they want to be removed with their children.
Sources: ABC News, The New York Times, Huffington Post, MPR News, The Guardian, Department of Homeland Security
