On Sunday, Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, came home to Minnesota after being detained by federal immigration authorities and held at an ICE facility in Texas. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro said he picked the pair up in Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them to Minnesota the next day, following a judge’s order requiring their release. The return marked the end of a detention that began when officers took the 5-year-old from a Minneapolis suburb and transported him to Texas.
Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for Castro, confirmed the two had arrived home. In the statement relayed through Castro’s office, Schneider said Castro retrieved Ramos and Arias from the Dilley facility on Saturday night and brought them back on Sunday.
The case had drawn outrage in Minnesota after images circulated of immigration officers surrounding the young boy, who was photographed wearing a blue bunny hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack. Federal officials later pushed back against those accounts, with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not target or arrest the boy. McLaughlin also repeated assertions that the boy’s mother refused to take him after his father’s apprehension, and said Arias told officers he wanted Liam to be with him.
Neighbors and school officials had accused federal agents of using the preschooler as “bait.” The federal government rejected that characterization, calling it an “abject lie,” and said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in the family’s driveway.
In the court process connected to the detention, the government said Arias entered the United States illegally from Ecuador in December 2024, while the family’s lawyer said he has an asylum claim pending that allows him to stay in the country. The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review’s online court docket, as reported, showed no future hearings listed for Liam’s father.
In ordering the release of Ramos and Arias, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery criticized the administration’s enforcement approach. Biery said the case appeared to have been driven by what he described as “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas,” adding that it seemed to involve traumatizing children.
In Columbia Heights, Minnesota, residents gathered Sunday afternoon outside the house where Liam had been detained, celebrating his return and calling attention to others from the community who remained in ICE custody. Lourdes Sanchez, who owns a cleaning business, said the family cried when they heard Liam would be coming back, adding that her own son is also named Liam and is five years old. Luis Zuna, who said his 10-year-old daughter and her mother were detained while driving to school on Jan. 6, said the family remained at the same Texas facility where Liam and his father had been held.
School and community members also pointed to how the case intersected with local classrooms and families. Carolina Gutierrez, a school secretary, said the situation reminded her of the detention she described and said “Seeing Liam released, it gives us faith.” Inquiries to DHS about the other detainee case were not immediately returned, according to the report.
Congress also weighed in on Ramos’ return. Castro wrote a letter to Liam while the two were on the plane to Minnesota, telling the boy that he has “moved the world.” Castro posted a photo of the letter online, writing that “Your family, school and many strangers said prayers for you and offered whatever they could do to see you back home,” and adding: “Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t your home. America became the most powerful, prosperous nation on earth because of immigrants not in spite of them.” Photos on Castro’s accounts showed Ramos wearing the blue bunny hat and a Pikachu backpack.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, welcomed Ramos home in a social media post saying he “should be in school and with family — not in detention,” and wrote: “Now ICE needs to leave.” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, also a Democrat from Minnesota, posted a photo on social media of her with Ramos, his father, and Castro, holding the boy’s Spider-Man backpack and writing “Welcome home Liam” with two hearts.
Columbia Heights Public Schools said in a statement that the boy’s release was “an important development,” and said school officials hoped it would lead to positive outcomes for four other Columbia Heights students held at the same Texas facility.
atomic_claims: []