SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A judge on Saturday ordered the U.S. to release a 5-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention center where they had been taken after being detained in a Minneapolis suburb last month.
Images depicting Liam Conejo Ramos, donning a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack while surrounded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers, intensified public outcry regarding the immigration enforcement policies of the Trump administration in Minnesota. This incident led to protests outside the family detention center and a congressional visit by Texas representatives.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery criticized the government's approach, stating that “the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
Previously, a judge had ruled that the boy and his father could not be removed from the U.S. at least temporarily.
Reports from neighbors and school officials alleged that federal officers used the preschooler as “bait” for his mother by instructing him to knock on their house door. However, the Department of Homeland Security termed these claims as false, asserting that the father left the boy in a running vehicle when he fled on foot.
During a congressional visit on January 28, representatives noted that the boy appeared exhausted, not eating well in the detention facility, which houses around 1,100 individuals. Concerns over the detention conditions have surfaced from detainees, highlighting issues such as inadequate food, including reports of worms in meals, lack of clean water, and poor medical care since the detention center's reopening.
As reported, December figures showed ICE detained roughly 400 children for longer than the suggested limit of 20 days, raising further alarm about the treatment of minors in detention.
