Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father return to Minnesota from the ICE facility in Texas

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by immigration agents in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas, were released following a judge’s order. They have returned to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro.

The boy and his father, Adrián Conejo Arias, originally from Ecuador, were arrested in a suburb of Minneapolis on January 20. They were taken to a detention center in Dilley, Texas.

Katherine Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic congressman, confirmed that the two had arrived home. She said Castro picked them up in Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them to his home on Sunday in Minnesota.

In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Tricia McLaughlin said Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not target or arrest Liam Conejo Ramos, and that his mother refused to take him in after his father’s arrest. His father told officers he wanted Liam to be with him, he said.

“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,” McLaughlin said.

The government said the boy’s father entered the United States illegally from Ecuador in December 2024. The family’s attorney said he has a pending asylum request allowing him to remain in the United States.

Images of the boy wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by immigration agents sparked outrage over the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.

In his order granting the release, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sharply criticized the administration, writing: “The case has its genesis in the government’s ill-conceived and incompetent enforcement of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

Columbia Heights Public Schools

Neighbors and school officials say federal immigration agents used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door of his home so his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an “abject lie.” He said the father fled on foot and left the child in a running vehicle in the driveway.

Castro wrote a letter to Liam while they were on the plane to Minnesota, telling the young man that he had “moved the world.”

“Your family, your school, and many strangers prayed for you and offered everything they could to see you back home,” Castro wrote. A photo of the letter was posted on social media. “Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t your home. America became the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world because of immigrants, not in spite of them.”

Photos on Castro’s social media showed Liam in his blue bunny hat and carrying a Pikachu backpack.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., welcomed the boy to Minnesota, saying in a social media post that he “should be in school and with his family, not in detention.” The senator added: “Now ICE needs to go.”

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, also a Democrat from Minnesota, posted a photo on social media of herself with Liam, his father and Castro in which she is holding Liam’s Spider-Man backpack. “Welcome home Liam,” he posted with two hearts.

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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.