A US federal judge has ordered the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from the South Texas Family Residential Centre in Dilley, Texas, according to a ruling obtained by CNN.
Liam and his father, Adrian, were taken by immigration agents from their snowy suburban Minneapolis driveway and sent 2100 kilometres to a Texas detention facility designed to detain families. They have been detained for more than a week.
The order specifies the preschooler and his father be released "as soon as practicable" and no later than Tuesday as their immigration case proceeds through the court system. The ruling, shared with CNN by the judge's courtroom deputy, was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News.
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"We are now working closely with our clients and their family to ensure a safe and timely reunion," the family's lawyers said in a Saturday statement.
"We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal."
In a scathing opinion, which at times read more like a civics lesson, US District Judge Fred Biery admonished "the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence" and quoted Thomas Jefferson's grievances against "a would-be authoritarian king". saying today people "are hearing echoes of that history".
Liam's detention – and the striking photo of an agent clutching the boy's Spider-Man backpack as he stared from under a cartoon bunny hat – fed mounting outrage over the Trump administration's massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and renewed the question: What happens to children when their parents are abruptly taken by ICE?
In another diversion from the norms of judicial writing, the judge included the now famous image of Liam at the end of his opinion, under his signature, along with references to the Bible passages Matthew 19:14 and John 11:35.
Liam's case, Biery wrote, originated in "the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children".
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"Observing human behaviour confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency," wrote the judge.
"And the rule of law be damned."
Biery also took aim at administrative warrants, which federal immigration agents often use to make arrests and which do not require a judge's signature.
"Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster," he wrote.
"That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer."
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Biery noted Liam and his father may well end up facing deportation anyway due to what he called the "arcane" US immigration system – but "that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place".
The judge finished his colourful opinion by quoting Benjamin Franklin's description of the nascent nation at the 1787 Constitutional Convention: "Well, Dr Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it."
Though nationwide detentions have swept up some undocumented criminals – whom the Trump administration says they are targeting – they have also ensnared legal residents, families and small children. Liam is the fourth child from his school district to be taken away by immigration agents over a two-week period, Columbia Heights Public Schools said. And last weekend, a toddler was returned to her mother in Minneapolis after being similarly detained and sent to Texas with her father.
"It should not take a court order to get a toddler out of a prison," Minnesota Gov Tim Walz said on X following the ruling.
How did Liam end up in ICE custody?
While family members and school administrators have accused ICE of using Liam as "bait" to capture his parents, immigration officials say his mother was just steps away but refused to take him.
Liam's mother, who is pregnant and also has a teenage son, was "terrified" of the agents outside her door, said Pastor Sergio Amezcua, who has been helping the mother.
"ICE agents were trying to use the baby to get her to come out of her house," Amezuca said. But neighbours advised her not to come out, fearing she would also be detained.
An agent "led him to the door 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 five-year-old as bait," said Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the local school district.
Mary Granlund, the school board chair at Columbia Heights Public Schools, was driving by and witnessed the frantic scene. She told CNN Liam's mother was looking out of a window, but Liam's father was yelling, "Please do not open the door! Don't open the door!"
"There was another adult who lived in the home that was there saying, 'I will take the child. I will take the child'," Granlund said.
On Saturday (Sunday AEDT), Liam's school district said it was "so happy" to hear about the ruling.
"We want all children to be released from detention centres and the reunification of families who have been unjustly separated," read a statement from the district.
The Department of Homeland Security has offered a different account from the district, saying Liam's father fled as agents tried to detain him, leaving the child alone.
DHS said in a social media post Liam's "alleged mother REFUSED to take custody of her own child" despite "multiple attempts to get the mother inside the house to take custody of her child".
"Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates," it said.
DHS said in another post agents "abided by the father's wishes to keep the child with him".
An ICE official said the agency has never "used a child as bait."
"My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family," said Marcos Charles, the acting executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. He said agents took care of Liam and brought him to McDonald's for a meal.
Democratic Represenative Joaquin Castro, who visited the child and his father in the detention facility earlier this week, said he's reached out to Liam's mother and attorneys since the order to "let them know I will continue to do everything I can to make sure he is safe".
"Thank you to folks all across the country and around the world for speaking out in support of Liam and so many other children in detention," Castro wrote on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) on X.
Liam's father previously told Castro his son has not been eating well, has been sleeping a lot and asks about his mother and classmates, the congressman said Wednesday.
Minnesota Liutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan called the ruling a "huge relief," adding, "We cannot stop until Liam, and all the children ICE has detained, are back in their own beds."
Liam's journey to the US
Liam's father has been called an "illegal alien" by the Department of Homeland Security, but their attorney says the family entered the US legally and was applying for asylum.
Liam and his family are from Ecuador and presented themselves to border officers in Texas in December 2024 to apply for asylum, according to the family's lawyer, Marc Prokosch.
The father and his wife had come to the US seeking "a good life" away from the economic turmoil and unstable employment in Ecuador, his brother Luis Conejo told CNN.
Liam's father does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota, Prokosch said. DHS officials have yet to share any criminal history for Conejo Arias, and a source familiar with the matter has told CNN there does not appear to be a criminal history.
When asked about any potential criminal history, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, "The law requires those in the country illegally claiming fearing to be detained pending removal. You can look it up in the statute".
CNN has been unable to find any criminal record for Arias in public sources. He did not have a criminal record in Ecuador, according to the country's Interior Ministry.
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