5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, father board plane for Minneapolis after detention center release

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, who last week shared images of the boy after his visit to the detention center, also boarded the flight with the father and son.Liam was detained on Jan. 20 by immigration agents shortly after arriving home from preschool while his father was in their driveway, school officials said last week.Both were taken to a federal detention facility in Texas.Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, is detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after arriving home from preschool, Jan. 20, 2026, in a Minneapolis suburb.They had a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States, ABC News previously reported.In the order releasing Liam and his father, Biery said 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.""Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency," the judge wrote.
48% : However, that account differs from what the family's attorney and schools officials said occurred."Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused," officials from Conejo Ramos' school said.In a statement after the judge's ruling on Saturday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child.
48% : For the child's safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias."The DHS statement went on to say: "Our officers made multiple attempts to get the alleged mother who was inside the house to take custody of her child.
45% : The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him."The Texas judge had temporarily blocked the removal of the boy and his father from the district in Texas pending the habeas case challenging their detention.People protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they march toward the South Texas Family Residential Center, January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas.Joel Angel Juarez/Getty ImagesIn the order releasing Liam and his father, Biery said 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.""Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency," the judge wrote.
41% : "As agents approached, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias fled on foot -- abandoning his child."McLaughlin said ICE officers remained with Liam while other officers apprehended his father.
32% : "And the rule of law be damned."But in a statement after the judge's ruling on Saturday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child.""On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration," McLaughlin said.
21% : On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration.

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