Lawmakers, school leaders worry about health of 5-year-old who remains detained in Texas

School leaders and lawmakers are worried about the health of the 5-year-old Minnesota boy whose detention with his father at a Texas immigration facility has drawn international attention.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a Columbia Heights preschooler, was taken by federal agents Jan. 20 along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, after returning home from school, the family’s attorney and witnesses said. Arias has no criminal record, and the family, originally from Ecuador, had an active asylum case, their attorney said.

The father and son were transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, where they remain.

Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said Thursday, Jan. 29, that the preschooler had a fever and was sick. She said she believes two other district students were being held in the same facility with their parents.

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, Liam appeared lethargic during a visit with members of Congress, who demanded his and his father’s immediate release and an end to the use of family detention.

“He was lying in his father’s arms,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said of Liam during a news conference after the visit. “His father said Liam has been sleeping a lot. He’s been asking about his family and his classmates. I think that he wants to go be back in school with his classmates.”

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a temporary order Monday, Jan. 26, prohibiting the father and son’s removal while their court case proceeds, so they can’t be deported.

Immigration advocates and lawmakers said Jan. 28 that Liam’s case can help bring awareness to conditions at the family detention facility, which is about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. The facility is holding about 1,100 people, Castro said, adding that he saw many other children younger than age 5 in detention, including a 2-month-old baby.

On Jan. 24, dozens of immigrant families protested at the detention facility to support Liam, chanting, “Let us go,” according to the Texas Tribune.

Castro, echoing previous statements by the family’s attorney, said Liam’s family entered the United States legally and was authorized to remain while their asylum case was processed.

“When people talk about an orderly and efficient immigration system — they followed the rules,” Castro said.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who visited the detention center with Castro, described conditions there as “worse than those faced by some people accused of or convicted of crimes.”

Crockett said Liam’s mother is pregnant.

During their visit, the lawmakers said they heard about children who were ill or so depressed that they were vomiting and refusing food. Crockett said families repeatedly told them that children were not receiving schooling, despite assurances from facility staff.

She said that when pressed, staff said “they were working to get some packets” for the children.

The Dilley facility was reopened in April after being shuttered under the Biden administration, Crockett said. The Texas lawmaker added that several detainees said they had been held for months, despite paperwork citing an average detention time of 28 days.

Castro and Crockett said detainees reported unsafe drinking water, expired food and limited access to medical care.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said in response to media reports about conditions at the facility that it meets federal detention standards and has regular inspections.

Castro sharply criticized Trump administration officials, urging President Donald Trump to consider what it would mean for his own grandchildren to experience detention.

Castro and Crockett said they support dismantling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, withholding funding for detention operations and pursuing impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem

“We won’t fund this nonsense,” Crockett said. “We are asking our colleagues in the Senate to do their part — to stand up and show what humanity looks like.”

Crockett and Castro took with them a video that Liam’s classmates had made for him to watch, but the boy slept through their visit so he didn’t see it, Valley View Elementary Principal Jason Kuhlman said.

Besides Liam, Stenvik said, at least two other Columbia Heights students — a 10-year-old and a 17-year-old — are believed to be held at the Dilley detention facility. Another 17-year-old student has since been released, she said.

In the days since Liam’s photo captured national and international media attention, immigration enforcement efforts have continued in Columbia Heights, Stenvik said. Three of the district’s high schoolers, traveling in three separate vehicles, were stopped by agents on their way to school Jan. 29, she said.

Stenvik said one called a principal in the moments after the stop and left a voicemail that ended with: “‘Please let me know when you get this message, because I just want to tell you they’re looming around the high school, and I want everyone to be safe.’”

“For any adult that would be terrifying, let alone for children to be experiencing this,” Stenvik said.

More than half of the district’s 3,000 students are Hispanic or Latino. Inside schools, Columbia Heights teachers are trying to preserve routine and joy.

He said the other children notice who is missing and that 25 families in the school have had a parent detained.