Boy, father released from federal custody return to Minnesota after judge’s order
A 5-year-old boy and his father released from federal immigration custody are now back in Minnesota. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, posted on X he picked Liam Conejo Ramos and Adrian Conejo Arias up from a Texas detention center last night, and escorted them back to Minnesota Sunday morning.
“Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack,” Castro wrote. “Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home.”
On Saturday, a federal judge ordered the release. Judge Fred Biery of the Federal Court for the Western District of Texas wrote a pointed opinion invoking Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.
“Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation,” Biery wrote.
“Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” Biery wrote. “That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”
Images and videos of the incident show a small child, later identified as Conejo Ramos, in the middle of a federal immigration operation. In the viral photo, a man is holding Conjeo Ramos by the handle of his Spider-Man backpack. Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik told The Associated Press that agents took the boy from a car idling outside his home after he returned from a day at preschool.
Federal officials said ICE agents were searching for the boy’s father. They said he had run from agents after they stopped him. School district officials, meanwhile, said agents refused to leave the boy with one of them, or another adult who lived in his home.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
