Judge Blocks Feds From Moving Detained 5-Year-Old

A 5-year-old boy swept up in an immigration arrest in Minnesota can't be deported or moved for now, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The temporary restraining order shields Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, from removal or transfer outside the Western District of Texas, where they are being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, NBC News reports. The order is active "until further order" of the court. The pair were detained Jan. 20 after returning from Liam's preschool to their home in Columbia Heights, Minn., according to the local school superintendent. A witness said she heard an adult inside their home pleading with immigration agents not to take the child.

The Department of Homeland Security says Conejo Arias tried to flee when officers approached his car, leaving Liam behind. "For the child's safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias," DHS said. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin rejected claims that agents targeted the boy, saying Liam's mother declined to take custody and that his father agreed to keep the child with him. School board Chair Mary Granlund disputes that account, saying she saw the mother inside the home and her husband warned the woman not to open the door or immigration agents might enter. Granlund says agents were informed that a district representative was present and could take responsibility for the child: "There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults," she says.

The case has fueled criticism from advocates who accuse ICE of using children as "bait." Some advocates accuse the agents of trying to get to Liam's mother through her child, CNN reports. But an ICE official claims agents were "heartbroken" she wouldn't open the door to take the boy. McLaughlin has defended the agency's approach, saying parents are asked if they want to depart with their children or designate another caregiver, a practice she described as consistent with prior administrations. The family's attorney, Marc Prokosch, says they entered the US legally in 2023 using the CBP One app and have complied with asylum procedures. "This family was not eluding ICE in any way," he said last week, arguing they pose no safety or flight risk and "never should have been detained." CBS News previously reported that the family cannot be legally deported because they have a pending immigration case.