A federal judge in San Antonio has ordered the release of Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father from an ICE detention center in Texas after they were taken into custody 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 by Tuesday, the San-Antonio Express News reported. Meanwhile, their immigration cases will proceed through the courts.
“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” Biery said in his ruling, per the Associated Press.
Liam was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on his way home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, on Jan. 20. An image of the boy clad in a blue bunny hat with long tassels, staring straight ahead as an adult’s hand grips his Spider-man backpack, went viral, sparking national outrage over his detention.
School officials alleged Liam’s father, Conejo Arias had just driven him home when federal agents grabbed the boy in his driveway and tried to use him as “bait” to lure other adults out of the house.
The Department of Homeland Security countered that Liam’s father, who was also detained, had “fled on foot” and abandoned his son. The department also stated that his mother “refused to take custody” of Liam even though officers “assured her” they would not take her into federal custody.