5-Year-Old Boy Detained by ICE Is Sick, Top School Official Says

WASHINGTON – Liam Conejo Ramos, the preschool student who ICE agents in Minneapolis captured last week and sent to a Texas detention center with his father, is now in poor health, according to his school’s superintendent.

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Ramos’ Columbia Heights Public School District, told News themezone that she spoke with the 5-year-old’s mother on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not very good at the moment,” Stenvik said. “He’s been sick. I’m told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.”

His mother is also “incredibly distraught,” he said.

Ramos’ mother addressed his deteriorating health earlier this week: “Liam is getting sick because the food he is getting is not good quality,” she told MPR News on Monday. “He has a stomach ache, he is vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.”

Marc Prokosch, the family’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ramos and his father, Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This is despite Arias. enter the country legally and have no criminal recordaccording to Prokosch. On Tuesday night, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal immigration officials deport Ramos and Arias, for now.

Conditions at the Texas facility where Ramos is being held are “absolutely abysmal” according to attorney Eric Lee, who represents other families detained there.

“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” Lee told Minnesota Public Radio on Monday. “One of my clients had appendicitis, he collapsed in the hallway, was vomiting in pain, and the officials told him, ‘Take a Tylenol and come back in three days.’”

Columbia Heights Public Schools

Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) visited the Texas ICE facility on Wednesday to meet with children and families detained there, including Ramos and his father.

He posted a photo on social media after meeting them. It shows Ramos sleeping or lying weakly in his father’s arms, while Castro stands next to them:

Congressman Joaquín Castro.

“I just visited Liam and his father at the Dilley Detention Center,” Castro wrote. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school and our country love him and pray for him.”

In a separate video, the Texas Democrat said he spent 30 minutes with Ramos and his dad. He said the 5-year-old was “not in any kind of emergency or anything like that physically,” but that he shared the photo of them together so people could see the state he is in.

“His dad said he hasn’t been himself and he’s been sleeping a lot, because he’s been depressed and sad,” Castro said. “Liam actually wasn’t awake during our visit.”