A 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy from Minnesota and his father have been released from a Texas immigration detention facility and returned home following a federal court order that severely criticized government enforcement practices. Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian, were apprehended by immigration authorities from their driveway in suburban Minneapolis and transferred approximately 1,300 miles to a family detention center in Texas, where they were held for over a week before a judge mandated their release.
US District Judge Fred Biery ordered that the child and his father be released “as soon as practicable,” setting a firm Tuesday deadline, while their immigration case proceeds through the courts. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the decision, which was subsequently confirmed by court officials. In a statement issued Saturday, the family’s legal representatives said they are working to coordinate a safe reunification and stressed that the family requires time to heal from the emotional impact of their experience.
Judge Biery’s written ruling was notably strong and broad in scope, referencing the Declaration of Independence and cautioning that contemporary government actions mirror abuses linked to authoritarian governance. He also quoted biblical passages and attached a now widely shared photograph of Liam wearing a bunny hat while an agent held his Spider-Man backpack at the conclusion of his opinion. The judge characterized the detention as resulting from a poorly implemented deportation approach driven by numerical quotas, contending that such policies cause needless harm to children. He denounced what he described as cruelty enabled by unrestrained authority and criticized the reliance on administrative warrants, which are issued internally by immigration agencies without judicial review.
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Such warrants, Biery stated, do not satisfy constitutional requirements because they lack independent oversight. He compared the practice to permitting the executive branch to police itself. While recognizing that Liam and his father may ultimately be subject to deportation under US immigration law, the judge emphasized that any such result must come through a fair and humane procedure rather than what he termed the current disorganized system.
The ruling ended with a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, highlighting concerns about the vulnerability of democratic institutions. Liam’s case has heightened public outrage over immigration enforcement methods under the Trump administration, especially in Minneapolis.
According to Columbia Heights Public Schools, he is the fourth child from the district to be placed in immigration custody within just two weeks. In a related incident, a toddler detained with her father in Texas was reunited with her mother in Minnesota last weekend. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz responded to the decision by stating that judicial intervention should not be required to remove young children from detention facilities.
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