Federal judge orders release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by ICE in Texas

A 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy from Minnesota and his father have returned home after being released from a Texas immigration detention center, following a federal court order that sharply criticised the government’s actions. Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian, were taken into custody by immigration authorities from their driveway in suburban Minneapolis and transported roughly 1,300 miles away to a family detention facility in Texas. They remained there for more than a week before a judge ordered their release.

US District Judge Fred Biery ruled that the child and his father must be freed “as soon as practicable,” with a firm deadline of Tuesday, as their immigration case continues in court. The decision was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News and later confirmed by court officials. In a statement released Saturday, the family’s attorneys said they are coordinating a safe reunification and emphasized that the family needs time to recover from the emotional toll of the ordeal.

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Judge Biery’s written opinion was unusually forceful and wide-ranging, invoking the Declaration of Independence and warning that modern government actions were echoing abuses associated with authoritarian rule. He also cited biblical passages and included a now widely circulated photograph of Liam, wearing a bunny hat while an agent held his Spider-Man backpack, at the end of the ruling. The judge described the detention as the product of a poorly executed deportation strategy driven by numerical targets, arguing that such policies inflict unnecessary trauma on children. He condemned what he characterized as cruelty fueled by unchecked authority and criticized the use of administrative warrants, which are issued internally by immigration agencies without judicial approval.

Such warrants, Biery wrote, fail to meet constitutional standards because they lack independent oversight. He likened the practice to allowing the executive branch to police itself. While acknowledging that Liam and his father could ultimately face deportation under US immigration law, the judge stressed that any such outcome should come through a fair and humane process rather than what he called the current chaotic system.

The ruling concluded with a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention, underscoring concerns about the fragility of democratic institutions. Liam’s case has intensified public anger over immigration enforcement tactics under the Trump administration, particularly in Minneapolis.

According to Columbia Heights Public Schools, he is the fourth child from the district to be taken into immigration custody in just two weeks. In a similar case, a toddler detained with her father in Texas was reunited with her mother in Minnesota last weekend. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz reacted to the decision by saying that judicial intervention should not be necessary to remove young children from detention facilities.