5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers who were arrested last week in Minnesota, had been ordered to be launched by a federal choose in Texas on Saturday.
U.S. District Decide Fred Biery ordered the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, launched from the immigration detention heart at Dilley “as quickly as practicable” however no later than Feb. 3.
“Any potential or anticipated elimination or switch of Petitioners below this current detention is prohibited,” the choose wrote in his order.
A screenshot of U.S. District Decide Fred Biery Jan. 31 order.
U.S. District Courtroom for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division
The boy was apprehended by immigration officers shortly after arriving dwelling from preschool whereas his father was of their driveway, faculty officers stated final week.
Each had been taken to a federal detention facility in Texas.
That they had a pending asylum case however no order of deportation directing that they be faraway from the USA, ABC Information beforehand reported.
The Division of Homeland Safety alleged the daddy abandoned his son when federal brokers approached to arrest him. Nevertheless, that account differs from what the household’s legal professional and colleges officers stated occurred.
“One other grownup residing within the dwelling was exterior and begged the brokers to allow them to maintain the small youngster, however was refused,” officers from Conejo Ramos’ faculty stated.
Marcos Charles, the highest ICE official in Minneapolis, alleged that folks residing within the dwelling refused to take the boy when brokers approached the door.
“We’ll implement the regulation because it’s written, however we are going to go above and past to reunite households, as a result of that’s who we’re,” Charles stated.
Biery had temporarily blocked the elimination of the boy and his father from the district in Texas pending the habeas case difficult their detention.
Individuals protest in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they march towards the South Texas Household Residential Heart, January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas.
Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Pictures
Within the order releasing Liam and his father, Biery stated the case “has its genesis within the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented authorities pursuit of each day deportation quotas, apparently even when it requires traumatizing youngsters.”
“Observing human habits confirms that for some amongst us, the perfidious lust for unbridled energy and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency,” the choose wrote. “And the rule of regulation be damned.”
Decide Biery stated that the daddy and son finally might “return to their dwelling nation, involuntarily or by self-deportation,” however added that it needs to be a consequence “by means of a extra orderly and humane coverage than presently in place.”
The choose concluded his opinion with a photograph of the five-year-old when he was detained.
The superintendent of the varsity district attended by Liam has spoken with the household, in response to an announcement from the district.
“Columbia Heights Public Colleges is so joyful to listen to the announcement that Liam and his father can be launched and returned dwelling,” the district stated. “We would like all youngsters to be launched from detention facilities and the reunification of households who’ve been unjustly separated.”
-ABC Information’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
