5-Year-Old Immigrant Boy Taken into Custody by ICE Has Pending Immigration Case
A recent incident in the Minneapolis area has sparked national attention and raised questions about the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. A 5-year-old immigrant boy, Liam Adrian Conejo Ramos, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alongside his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos. According to government records reviewed by CBS News, Liam and his father have an active and pending case in immigration court and cannot be legally deported yet.
The ICE operation that led to their detention has been widely criticized, with many questioning the targeting of a young child and his father. Justice Department records indicate that Liam and his father have immigration court cases listed as “pending,” with no deportation orders in either case. This means that an immigration judge still must consider their claims before any deportation attempt can be made. The family’s immigration court case was docketed on December 17, 2024.
Dueling Narratives About the Arrest
ICE officials have provided a narrative about the arrest, stating that they targeted Liam’s father, not the child, during an operation on January 20. According to Marcos Charles, the head of ICE’s deportation branch, Liam’s father tried to escape on foot, “abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle.” However, Sergio Amezcua, a pastor who has spoken to Liam’s mother, has a different account of the incident, stating that ICE agents were trying to use the child to get Liam’s mother to come out of her house.
Advocates for immigrants have raised concerns about the conditions at the Dilley detention center in Texas, where Liam and his father are being held. Neha Desai, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, has stated that minors held at Dilley have experienced “a dramatic decline in their physical and mental health.” Desai notes that the current conditions at Dilley are “fundamentally unsafe for anyone, let alone young children.”
Immigration Court Cases and Deportation
While immigrants with pending claims cannot be legally deported, immigration officials do have the authority to detain them if they are in the U.S. illegally or without a valid legal status, pending the adjudication of those cases. Liam and his father are currently being held at the Dilley detention center, which is ICE’s long-term holding site for families with underage children.
Representatives for Liam and his father say the family is from Ecuador and that they entered the U.S. in 2024 to request asylum. The family’s lawyer has stated that they were able to get an appointment to enter the U.S. at an official crossing site along the southern border, with the government’s permission, through a Biden administration system that relied on a phone app called CBP One.
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