A federal judge has intervened to prevent ICE from relocating or deporting five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father.
On January 20, while returning home from school with his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, Liam was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, claimed ICE did not ‘target a child’ and asserted that parents are ‘asked if they want to be removed with their children’.
Marc Prokosch, the attorney for Liam’s family, spoke out, emphasizing that they ‘are not criminals’ and did not enter the country illegally. He presented documentation showing they crossed through an official entry point and ‘complied with all regulations’.
Liam and his father are reportedly in custody at the Dilley ICE detention center in Texas.
On January 26, US District Court Judge Fred Biery ordered federal immigration officers not to relocate or deport the father and son.
Judge Biery’s mandate states that ‘until further order from this court,’ neither the father nor the son can be deported.
The court order also prohibits ICE from moving them out of the Western District of Texas.
It specifies: “It is further ordered 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.
“Respondents 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.”
This follows reports from CBS News that there is an active immigration court case involving the father and son, preventing their legal deportation at this time.
The detainment has led to conflicting accounts from family acquaintances and ICE officials.
Officials have accused Liam’s father of ‘abandoning his child,’ while others allege the family refused to take him in.
Sergio Amezcua, a pastor who claims to have communicated with Liam’s mother, told CNN: “ICE agents were trying to use the baby for her to come out of her house. But the neighbors stepped up. Neighbors advised her not to do it.”
Liam is one of four children from the Columbia Heights school district in the Minneapolis suburb allegedly detained by ICE.
According to The Guardian, Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Liam’s school, accused ICE agents of ‘roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our kids,’ leaving children ‘traumatized’ and the community ‘shaken’.