Judge orders 5-year-old detained in Minnesota and dad to be released from ICE detention in Texas

A federal judge in Texas on Saturday ordered 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father to be released from immigration detention.

Granting an emergency request filed by the family’s lawyer, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery directed government officials to release Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos and his son, who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month in Minnesota, from immigration detention “as soon as practicable,” but no later than Tuesday, Feb. 3.

Earlier in the week, Biery had blocked ICE from deporting Liam and his family or transferring them away from Texas, while the legal case unfolded.

In an opinion accompanying his ruling, Biery said the detention of Liam and his father “has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

The judge also cited the Declaration of Independence, saying the government’s ignorance of it is “apparent.”

Biery signed his opinion on Saturday with a photo of Liam seen wearing a blue bunny hat and his school backpack as he was being detained. The photo garnered national attention and sparked outrage.

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