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Geoff Mulvihill
A five-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas centre where they’ve been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota last month, a federal judge has ordered, in a ruling that harshly criticised the Trump administration’s approach to enforcement.
Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack being surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on January 20, sparked further outcry over the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
It also led to a protest at the Texas family detention centre and a visit by two Democratic members of Congress.
District Judge Fred Biery, who 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”.
Biery had previously ruled that the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, could not be removed from the US, at least for now.
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 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.
Biery included a photo of Liam Conejo Ramos in his ruling 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’s not the only federal judge who has been tough on ICE recently. A Minnesota-based judge with a conservative pedigree accused the agency of repeatedly violating court orders.
Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has said there’s a target of 3000 immigration arrests a day – a figure the judge described as a “quota”.
Spokespeople from the US Department of Justice and US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
During a visit by Texas congressmen Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett last week, five-year-old Liam slept in the arms of his father, who said his son was frequently tired and not eating well at the detention facility that houses about 1100 people, according to Castro.
Detained families have reported poor conditions, including worms in food, fights over clean water and insufficient medical care at the detention centre since its reopening last year. In December, an ICE report acknowledged that 400 children had been held longer than the recommended limit of 20 days.
AP
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