A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) family detention center in Dilley, Texas, saying that continuing to hold the pair was unjustified under the circumstances. The boy and his father had been detained after an immigration enforcement action in Columbia Heights, Minnesota earlier this month, a case that drew national outrage and scrutiny.
Images of Liam wearing a bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack while surrounded by ICE agents went viral online and helped spark widespread debate about the federal government’s immigration tactics. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, appointed by a Democratic president, criticized the government’s pursuit of deportation efforts and suggested that the case reflected a misplaced focus on daily arrest quotas, even when it meant traumatizing children.
In his ruling, Judge Biery referenced both the Declaration of Independence and passages from the Bible, including the line, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,” framing his decision as a defense of basic humanitarian principles. He also included a photograph of Liam in the detention center in his order.
The order requires that Liam and his father be released from custody no later than Tuesday, freeing them from the detention facility where they had been held for more than a week while their asylum case continues. Biery had earlier ruled that the family could not yet be deported.
Neighbors, school officials and civil rights advocates had raised alarm about how the family was taken into custody. Officials in the Columbia Heights Public School District said the boy was detained along with his father after returning home from preschool, and some witnesses claimed that federal agents had used the child as bait to lure his father to the door. The Department of Homeland Security strongly disputed those accounts, saying the child was not a target and that the father had fled from officers, leaving the boy in a vehicle.
During a visit to the detention center, Democratic members of Congress Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett said Liam was tired, not eating well and emotionally distressed. Detained families and their advocates reported poor conditions inside the facility, with issues ranging from water quality to inadequate medical care, and noted that ICE had acknowledged holding hundreds of children longer than federal guidelines recommend.
The Ramos family entered the United States and applied for asylum, and their lawyer has insisted they complied with legal immigration processes. The judge’s decision to order their release does not end their immigration case, but it ensures they will leave detention while the legal process continues.
Summary:
A federal judge has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from ICE detention in Texas by Tuesday, following national outcry over their arrest during an immigration raid in Minnesota and viral images of the child in custody. The ruling criticized federal deportation practices as harmful to children and cited constitutional and humanitarian concerns. The family’s asylum case will continue even after their release.