ICE releases Ecuadorian five-year-old and his father following a court order

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, following a court order mandating their release.

Adrian Conejo Arias and his son, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, following their release for an ICE detention center in Texas.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Saturday directed government officials to release Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos and his son, who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month in Minnesota, from detention “as soon as practicable.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, posted on social media on Sunday that he had picked up Liam and his father and escorted them back to Minnesota.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar celebrated Liam and his father’s arrival back in Minnesota in a social media post on Sunday. “Welcome home Liam,” she wrote in the post that included a photo of her, Liam, his father and Castro.

Since their detention, Liam and his father were held at the Dilley ICE detention center, a facility in Texas designed to house immigrant families with underage children who have been accused of violating federal immigration law.

Representatives for Liam and his father said the Ecuadorian family is that they entered the U.S. in 2024 under a now-defunct Biden-era system that allowed asylum-seekers to use a phone app to schedule an appointment to be processed at an official border entry.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has said that it has no record of the family using that app, formerly known as CBP One. The agency has called Liam’s father an “illegal alien” and accused him of trying to flee ICE officers when they sought to arrest him on Jan. 20 and abandoning Liam in a vehicle.

In a statement to CBS News on Sunday, DHS said immigration agents “did NOT target or arrest a child.”

“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” DHS said in the statement.

DHS officials have also alleged that ICE officers tried to get Liam’s mother to take him in, but that she refused to do so. Individuals who have spoken with the family have disputed that claim, saying Liam’s mother did not open the door out of concerns she would also be arrested by ICE.