A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be immediately deported, one week after their arrest sparked international outrage.
A Texas-based judge issued an order saying Liam Ramos, the preschooler, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, cannot be removed or transferred out of the judicial district where they are being held while the litigation challenging their detention proceeds.
Liam’s arrest seven days prior went viral and became a symbol of the Trump administration’s relentless crackdown on immigrant communities in the Minneapolis region. Attorneys for the family have said the father and son have an active asylum case and had entered the US at an authorized port of entry.
Officials at Liam’s school district spoke out about his arrest last week, saying the boy and his father were detained as they returned home from school. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the arrest, arguing that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was conducting a “targeted operation” to detain the boy’s father.
The father and son were quickly transferred out of Minnesota last week and taken to the Dilley immigration processing center in Texas, a facility that holds families with children and has been the subject of protests and complaints about conditions.
Fred Biery, a judge for the western district of Texas, wrote in his order that “any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of” the father and his child is “IMMEDIATELY STAYED until further order from this Court”. The government “SHALL NOT TRANSFER” them out of the district “during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court”, the ruling said.
Liam is one of four students enrolled in the school district of Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, who have been detained by federal immigration agents this month, school officials said last week. The others, according to the district superintendent, were a 17-year-old high schooler taken by “armed and masked agents” without parents present, a 17-year-old high school girl detained with her mother when ICE agents “pushed their way into an apartment” and a 10-year-old fourth grade student taken with her mother on her way to elementary school.
DHS did not respond to inquiries last week about the other detentions.
DHS alleged last week that Liam’s father “fled” and “abandoned” his son when ICE approached them after school, which led agents to take the boy into custody “for the child’s safety”. The department also claimed that detained parents are given an opportunity to be removed with their children or have the minors placed with a person designated by the parent.
School officials, including leaders who rushed to the scene, countered that Liam’s family was trying to prevent the boy from being taken, and that there was an adult present offering to take care of Liam, but that officials still detained him. School officials further accused agents of using the boy as “bait”, having him knock on the door of his home, which they say could have led to further arrests if someone had opened.
Photos released by the school district, which have been widely shared, showed Liam in a blue knit hat and backpack at his front door with a masked agent by his side.
Officials have also referred to Liam’s father as an “illegal alien”, a label the family’s attorneys have rejected, pointing to their active asylum case and crossing at a port of entry.
In a statement after the judge’s ruling, Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’s assistant secretary, repeated the claim that agents had not intended to take custody of Liam: “The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child.” McLaughlin further alleged that officers attempted to have Liam’s mother, who was inside the house, take custody of the boy. McLaughlin said officers “assured” the mother she wouldn’t be detained, but the mother wouldn’t take Liam and the father said he “wanted the child to remain with him”.
Attorneys for the family did not respond to inquiries after the ruling.
The Trump administration has been facing increasing scrutiny over its detention of children in recent weeks. On Thursday, agents also detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis and quickly transferred them to Texas despite a court order demanding they not be removed from the district. The girl was flown back to Minnesota the following day and reunited with her mother, following a judge’s order, the family’s lawyers said.
The Guardian also reported on Tuesday that a five-year-old Austin girl, who is a US citizen, was deported with her mother to Honduras earlier this month.
