Extract from ABC News
Liam Conejo Ramos was detained by US ICE officers in Minnesota after arriving home from preschool on January 20. (AP: Ali Daniels)
In short:
A five-year-old boy who was detained by ICE agents in Minnesota last month must be released by Tuesday, a US federal judge has ruled.
The US government had denied targeting the child, saying ICE wanted only to arrest his father who had entered the country illegally in December 2024.
What's next?
The family's lawyer is arguing Adrian Conejo Arias has a pending asylum claim that allows him to remain in the country.
A US federal judge has ordered a five-year-old boy and his father to be released from the Texas centre where they have been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota.
The ruling on Saturday harshly criticised the Trump administration's approach to enforcement, and said the father and son must be set free by Tuesday.
Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack being surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on January 20, sparked even more outcry about the administration's immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
It also led to a protest at the Texas family detention centre and a visit by two Texas Democratic members of Congress.
US District Judge Fred Biery, who sits in San Antonio and was appointed by former Democratic president Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that "the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children".
Judge Biery had previously ruled that the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, could not be removed from the US, at least for now.
In his Saturday order, he said: "apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence," suggesting the Trump administration's actions echo those that author and future president Thomas Jefferson enumerated as grievances against England.
Judge Biery also included in his ruling a photo of Liam Conejo Ramos and references to two lines in the Bible: "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these," and "Jesus wept".
He is not the only federal judge who has been tough on ICE recently.
A Minnesota-based judge with a conservative pedigree accused the agency as a serial violator of court orders.
Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has said there is a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day.
It is that figure the judge seemed to describe as a "quota".
Spokespersons from the US Department of Justice and US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to AP requests for comment.
Adrian Conejo Arias (right) has been held at the South Texas Family Residential Center with his son. (Rep Joaquin Castro via AP)
Neighbours and school officials say federal immigration officers in Minnesota used the preschooler as "bait" by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer.
The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an "abject lie".
It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.
The government says Mr Arias entered the US illegally in December 2024. The family's lawyer says he has a pending asylum claim that allows him to remain in the country.
During the January 28 visit with Texas representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, the boy slept in the arms of his father, who said Liam was frequently tired and not eating well at the detention facility that houses about 1,100 people, according to Mr Castro.
Detained families report poor conditions like worms in food, fighting for clean water and poor medical care at the detention centre since its reopening last year.
In December, a report filed by ICE acknowledged they held about 400 children longer than the recommended limit of 20 days.
AP
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