A federal judge has blocked the possible deportation of a 5-year-old and his father for now
By Holly Yan, CNN
(CNN) — A Minnesota preschooler detained in Texas with his father cannot be imminently deported, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, was taken away from his family’s suburban Minneapolis driveway last week after federal agents apprehended his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.
The detention of the child — and a widely-circulated photo of an agent holding a fearful Liam in place by his Spider-Man backpack — has added to the fury of those who are resisting the Trump administration’s massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where federal agents have swept up several children and teens.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed Liam’s father is an “illegal alien” from Ecuador and said agents took the boy with them after the father said he wanted Liam to stay with him.
But an attorney for Liam’s family said Conejo committed no crimes and followed “all the established protocols” for legally seeking asylum in the US, including “showing up for their court hearings.”
Liam and his dad were flown across the country to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas — an ICE detention facility for families.
The father has filed a lawsuit against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, US Attorney General Pam Bondi and other federal officials.
On Monday, a federal judge ruled “that any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of Petitioners Adrian Conejo Arias and L.C.R., a minor child, is IMMEDIATELY STAYED until further order from this Court,” a court document states.
In addition, federal officials “SHALL NOT TRANSFER Petitioners Adrian Conejo Arias and L.C.R., a minor child, outside of this judicial district during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court,” the ruling says.
CNN has reached out to an attorney for the family and DHS for comment.
Liam and his father were apprehended outside their home in Columbia Heights as they returned from the boy’s preschool. DHS officials have said they had no choice but to take him, saying his mother refused to open the door and let Liam in the house.
Family friends and school administrators have pushed back on that account.
The mother, who is pregnant and also has a teenage son, was “terrified” of the agents, said Pastor Sergio Amezcua, who has been helping the mother since her husband and son were detained.
“ICE agents were trying to use the baby to get her to come out of her house, but the neighbors … advised her not to do it,” fearing she would be detained, Amezcua said.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, said agents led Liam to the door of his home “and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” Stenvik said.
ICE has responded, saying it “did not, and has never, ‘used a child as bait.’”
Federal officials also said they took the boy with them after his father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.
Liam was a “PreK 4” student at Valley View Elementary in Minnesota before he was taken to Texas.
In the past month, at least three other children from Liam’s school district have also been taken away by ICE agents, Columbia Heights Public Schools said.
Another case, in which a 2-year-old girl was detained, bears striking similarities to Liam’s case. That toddler was taken into ICE custody with her father in Minneapolis last week and flown to Texas despite a court order requiring her immediate release, a family lawyer has said. Within a day, she was returned home to her mother, though her father, Elvis Tipan-Echeverria, remained in custody.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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