Advocates for Trump administration Liam Conejo Ramos, a photo of a five-year-old boy targeted for deportation Wearing a bunny hat His arrest went viral after federal authorities detained him last month during an aggressive anti-immigration crackdown in snowy Minneapolis. Crushing there.
The child, Liam He returned home He moved to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody and transferred along with his father last month A notorious the family detention facility In Texas.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday it was seeking an order to deport the Ecuadorian boy.
But the department denied that the family’s lawyer described the government’s move as seeking to expedite his and his father’s removal from the US. to the New York Times.
The lawyer, Daniel Moliver, described the move to the newspaper as “extraordinary” and possibly “vindictive”.
Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who both entered the US legally as asylum applicants, were released from detention on January 31. The government is trying to end the family’s asylum claims, MPR News reports.
Democratic members of Congress Ilhan Omar Minnesota native and Joaquin Castro of Texas are representing the family.
DHS released a statement by Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, which was also sent to the Guardian in response to a request for comment.
“These are normal removal proceedings. There is no expedited removal. This is standard procedure and there is no retaliation in enforcing the country’s immigration laws,” she said.
Castro wrote that Liam and his father were brought back to Minnesota last weekend On X The Trump Administration is “trying to take” the child again.
“Liam Ramos, 5, spent ten days in a Texas trailer prison. He was sick, missing his mother and school, and afraid of the guards. Millions prayed, spoke and offered to do whatever they could to get him home,” he posted.
“But now, the Trump administration Trying to take him away again,” Castro continued. “They are violating legal precedent in an attempt to break the spirit of this boy and all Americans who are praying for him.”
Lawyers for the Ramos family declined to discuss details of the case and said in an email to the Guardian: “We will make our case before the immigration court challenging any erroneous decisions and US Immigration The law works for our clients.
Liam’s detention became the latest prime example of the Trump administration’s escalation of detention of minors. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) According to a Guardian, nearly 3,800 minors were placed in migrant family detention from January to October 2025, including children as young as one or two years old. Analysis of records Deportation data obtained by the project.
More than 2,600 of those minors were apprehended by ICE officials, meaning they were usually detained somewhere in the country rather than at the border.
Reuters reported
