A federal judge in Texas has ordered that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be deported while legal challenges to their detention proceed. The ruling on Tuesday comes a week after the arrest of Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, sparked international outrage.
Judge Fred Biery of the western district of Texas issued an emergency stay, preventing the government from removing or transferring the pair out of the district. The judge wrote that any anticipated removal is "immediately stayed until further order from this Court". The father and son had been transferred from Minnesota to the Dilley immigration processing centre in Texas, a facility that holds families with children.
Liam’s arrest last week became a symbol of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrant communities in Minneapolis. Attorneys for the family said the father and son have an active asylum case and entered the US at an authorised port of entry. School officials in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, reported that Liam was one of four students detained by federal immigration agents this month.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the arrest, claiming that agents were conducting a "targeted operation" to detain the father. DHS alleged that the father fled and abandoned Liam, leading agents to take the boy for his safety. However, school officials countered that the family tried to prevent the boy's detention and that an adult was present to care for him.
In a statement after the ruling, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin reiterated that ICE did not target or arrest a child, and accused the mother of refusing to take custody. Attorneys for the family did not respond to inquiries. The case highlights ongoing scrutiny over the detention of children by immigration authorities.
