After ten days in detention in Texas, it’s the end of a nightmare. Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy arrested in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement (ICE), and whose photo went around the world, is now back home.
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Little Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, of Ecuadorian origin, were released on Saturday, Joaquin Castro, elected from Texas to the House of Representatives, announced on Sunday.
“I picked them up last night and escorted them to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now at home, with his hat and his backpack,” said the 51-year-old Democrat, with supporting photos, on X. “Thank you to everyone who asked for freedom for Liam. »
We won’t stop until all children and families are back home.
Joaquin Castro, elected Democrat to the House of Representatives, in a publication on
On January 20, the 5-year-old was arrested returning from school with his father on the snowy streets of Minneapolis, as part of a large immigration police operation aimed at deporting undocumented immigrants.
The photo of the boy during his arrest, where he appears frightened, wearing a blue hat adorned with two rabbit ears and carrying a backpack held by a figure dressed in black, moved people throughout the United States and beyond.
The federal judge who ordered their release on Saturday affirmed, in a particularly scathing statement, that “this case had its origins in the government’s poorly conceived and poorly executed implementation of daily quotas for expulsions, even if it meant traumatizing children.”
Glimmer of hope
On Sunday afternoon, the neighborhood of Columbia Heights, the Minneapolis suburb where Liam lives, gathered to celebrate his return.
“We cried so much when we heard he was coming back,” local woman Lourdes Sanchez told the Associated Press. “My son’s name is Liam too and he’s 5, so it was personal for us. »
For the Columbia Heights Public School District, the release of Liam Conejo Ramos is a beacon of hope. Four other of his students are being held at the center in Dilley, Texas, about 1,200 miles away.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Images of the arrest of little Liam Conejo Ramos went around the world.
“Liam’s release is an important step forward, and we hope it will have positive implications for other families,” the school district said in a statement. “We want all children to be released from detention centers and hope that families who have been unjustly separated can be reunited. »
“Less punitive” detention center?
The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley is in theory a detention center that is “less punitive than traditional prisons,” according to a presentation document from the company that runs it, CoreCivic.
Yet U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett described encountering children “mentally broken by the trauma they are experiencing” while visiting the center last week. On site, little Liam would not have eaten well, in addition to being frequently tired, his father testified.
According to the Deportation Data Project, ICE detained approximately 3,800 minors in immigration centers between January and October 2025. The number of children currently detained remains unclear.
The American federal agency, praised by President Donald Trump and several high-ranking Republicans in the government, is the target of virulent criticism for its methods perceived as brutal, which notably led to the death of two American citizens – Renée Good and Alex Pretti – under the bullets of federal agents in January in Minneapolis.
In an official statement, Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, maintained that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had “not targeted or arrested” Liam Conejo Ramos. His mother refused to take him with her after his father’s arrest, she said.
According to the government, Adrian Conejo Adrias entered the United States illegally from Ecuador in December 2024. He was awaiting approval of an asylum application to remain there, according to a family lawyer.
With Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and The Guardian
