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Federal Judge Halts Deportation of 5-Year-Old and Father, Keeping Them in Texas
A federal judge has issued a temporary order preventing federal immigration officials from deporting 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos, or transferring them out of the Texas region where they are currently being held.
The family was apprehended in Minnesota earlier this month during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. Photos and videos of Liam, notably wearing a blue bunny hat and his school backpack, sparked widespread public outcry and national attention.
Liam and his father are presently detained at the Dilley ICE detention center in Texas, a facility designed to house immigrant families with minor children who are accused of violating federal immigration laws.
Last week, CBS News exclusively reported that the government could not immediately deport the father and son due to pending immigration court cases that had not yet been fully adjudicated.
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery’s order, issued on Tuesday, explicitly blocks any attempt to deport the family “until further order from this Court.” The order also prohibits ICE from transferring them from the Western District of Texas “during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court.”
The father and son were taken into ICE custody on January 20 in the Minneapolis area, a region where the Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal immigration agents as part of the largest operation in the Department of Homeland Security’s history.
DHS has stated that Liam’s father is an Ecuadorian immigrant residing in the U.S. illegally and has accused him of attempting to evade ICE officers during their arrest attempt. An attorney representing the family indicates that Liam’s father appears to have no criminal record, an assertion that DHS has not yet disputed.
Marcos Charles, head of ICE’s deportation branch, stated last week that officers targeted Liam’s father, not the child, during the January 20 arrest operation. Charles explained that Liam was with his father in a vehicle when ICE officers approached them.
According to Charles, Liam’s father attempted to flee on foot, “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.” He further stated that an officer remained with Liam while others apprehended his father. Charles added that ICE officers “cared for” Liam and took him to a drive-through restaurant.
Charles also noted that ICE officers tried to have Liam’s family take the child, but “the people inside refused to take him in and open the door,” an incident he said left his officers “heartbroken.”
Sergio Amezcua, a pastor who has reportedly spoken with Liam’s mother, stated on CNN that she “was terrified” during the incident. “ICE agents were trying to use the baby for her to come out of her house,” Amezcua said.
“But the neighbors step[ped] up. Neighbors advised her not to do it.”