5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos comes home after immigration detention

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos returned home to Minnesota on Sunday, Feb. 1, with his father, ending a detention that carried the Columbia Heights preschooler hundreds of miles from his school and family and turned him into a national symbol of the human toll of immigration enforcement.

Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, boarded a commercial flight from San Antonio to Minneapolis after spending more than a week in federal custody at a Texas immigration detention center. They were detained Jan. 20 outside their home in Columbia Heights shortly after Liam returned from preschool, according to school officials and witnesses.

Their detention drew national attention after photos circulated of Liam being taken into custody in his driveway, wearing a blue hat with bunny ears and a Spider-Man backpack. In one photo, his face is twisted into a frown as agents lead him toward a vehicle, his small frame swallowed by a bulky flannel, his hands held together in front of him.

“I’m happy to finally be going home,” his father told ABC News correspondent John Quiñones as he carried his son onto the plane.

Liam’s release followed an emergency order from U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who directed the government to immediately free the father and son from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. The ruling capped days of mounting pressure from lawmakers, school leaders and advocates who warned the detention of the young child had crossed a line.

The family, originally from Ecuador, has an asylum case pending, according to their attorney. After being detained in Minnesota, Liam and his father were transferred to Texas, separating the child from his school, his routine and his community.

Concerns deepened after school officials said Liam became ill while in custody.

Congressional lawmakers traveled to Texas to visit Liam and demanded his release. They described him as lethargic and called for an end to family detentions. Advocates said the image of a young child swept up in the immigration crackdown resonated far beyond Minnesota, intensifying calls to end the detention practice.

On Sunday, Columbia Heights Public Schools welcomed Liam’s return while emphasizing that his case is not an isolated one.

“Columbia Heights Public Schools is so happy that Liam and his father have returned home to be reunified with his mother, brother and our community,” the district said in a statement. “We are very grateful for the overwhelming number of well-wishes and offers of support from people around the globe.”

The district also pointed to other children who are still affected by the immigration sweep. School leaders said four other Columbia Heights students remain detained with their families at the Dilley facility.

“Liam’s release is an important development, and we hope it will lead to positive developments for other families as well,” the district said. “We want all children to be released from detention centers and hope for the reunification of families who have been unjustly separated.”

He described the detention as the product of an “ill-conceived and incompetently implemented” drive to meet deportation quotas, writing that deportation action appeared to proceed even if it meant traumatizing children.

While acknowledging that courts routinely order detention and deportation in immigration cases, Biery wrote that such actions must follow lawful procedures grounded in constitutional protections. He invoked centuries of legal tradition and the Fourth Amendment, and rejected the government’s reliance on administrative warrants.

“Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” Biery wrote, He likened the practice to “the fox guarding the henhouse.”

“The Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention” of Conejo Arias and his son, the judge concluded.

His ruling did not decide the ultimate outcome of the family’s asylum case. Biery noted that Conejo Arias and his son could still face removal under the nation’s immigration system, but he warned that such decisions must come through orderly and humane processes.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the government’s broader approach during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ “This Week.” Blanche argued that immigration enforcement operates under administrative law rather than the criminal justice system.