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A 5-year-old boy and his father who were arrested by immigration officials in Minnesota and held in Texas have been released after a judge’s order. They returned to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro’s office.
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were arrested in suburban Minneapolis on January 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
Katherine Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic congressman, confirmed that the two had arrived home.
Images of a boy wearing a bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack surrounded by immigration officials have sparked outrage over the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who sits in San Antonio and was appointed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that “the case has its genesis in the government’s ill-conceived and incompetently executed pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
At a news conference Thursday afternoon alongside the attorney for Liam Cone Ramos, the 5-year-old detained by ICE in suburban Minneapolis, school board President Mary Granlund was emotional as she spoke about the anxiety she says she’s seen in schools since immigration agents arrived in the area.
Neighbors and school officials said federal immigration officials used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door of his house so his mother would answer.
The Department of Homeland Security called that account of events a “stupid lie,” instead saying the father fled on foot and left the boy in a speeding vehicle in their driveway.









