ICE releases 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from custody

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a day after a court order ordered their release.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Saturday ordered government authorities to release Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos and his son, who were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month in Minnesotadetention “as soon as possible”.

Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed that the two men were released on Sunday.

“The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child,” she said in a statement, adding, “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the apprehension, detention, and deportation of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche indicated Sunday on “ABC This Week” that the administration could appeal Biery’s order.

“Immigration law, all of immigration law, is very different from our typical criminal procedure because of the administrative nature of what we do every day,” Blanche said. “And so, to the extent that we have to appeal this judge’s decision, I promise that we will.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, posted on social media Sunday that he had picked up Liam and his father and driven them back to Minnesota.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar celebrated Liam and his father’s return to Minnesota in a social media post on Sunday.

“Welcome home Liam,” she wrote in the post which included a photo of her, Liam, his dad and Castro.

Since their detention, Liam and his father have been detained at the Dilley ICE Detention Center, a facility in Texas designed to house immigrant families with minor children accused of violating federal immigration law.

“Liam’s release is an important development, and we hope it will also lead to positive developments for other families, including our four other students who are detained at the Dilley facility in Texas,” Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam lives and attends school, said in a statement Sunday. “We want all children to be released from detention centers and hope for the reunification of unjustly separated families.”

Representatives for Liam and his father said the family was originally from Ecuador and entered the United States in 2024 under a now-defunct Biden-era system that allowed asylum seekers to use a phone app to make an appointment at an official border entry.

DHS, which oversees ICE, said it had no record of the family using the app, formerly known as CBP One. The agency called Liam’s father an “illegal alien” and accused him of trying to flee from ICE agents when they sought to arrest him on Jan. 20 and abandoning Liam in a vehicle.

DHS officials also claimed that ICE agents tried to convince Liam’s mother to take him in, but she refused to do so. People who spoke with the family disputed that claim, saying Liam’s mother didn’t open the door out of fear that she, too, would be arrested by ICE.