A federal judge in San Antonio ordered the release of Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father from an ICE detention center in Texas after they were detained in a Minneapolis suburb last week.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered Saturday morning that both the preschooler and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, be released Tuesday, the San-Antonio Express News reported. In the meantime, their immigration cases will proceed through the courts.

“The case has its genesis in the government’s ill-conceived and incompetently implemented pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” Biery said in his ruling, according to the News.

Liam was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while returning home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, on January 20. An image of the boy dressed in a blue bunny hat with long tassels, looking straight ahead as an adult’s hand clutches his Spider-Man backpack, went viral, sparking national outrage over his arrest.

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained by ICE agents on January 20, 2026 in a suburb of Minneapolis.
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained by ICE agents on January 20, 2026 in a suburb of Minneapolis.

Columbia Heights Public Schools

School officials alleged that Liam’s father, Conejo Arias, had just taken him home when federal agents grabbed the boy in the driveway and tried to use him as “bait” to lure other adults out of the house.

The Department of Homeland Security responded that Liam’s father, who was also detained, “fled on foot” and abandoned his son. The department also stated that his mother “refused to take custody” of Liam despite agents “assuring her” they would not take her into federal custody.

The DHS described what happened at Liam’s house as a “targeted operation” to arrest Conejo Arias. Federal officials said he was in the country illegally. The family’s attorney told CNN that the family arrived in the United States from Ecuador to request asylum in December 2024 and that they “are not illegal aliens.”

Both Liam and his father were sent to Texas and eventually ended up at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The superintendent of Liam’s school district told News themezone earlier this week that Liam had fallen ill at the facility.