Judge blocks ICE from deporting or transferring 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily barred federal immigration officials from deporting 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father or transferring them away from the Texas region where they're currently held.
Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos, were taken into custody in Minnesota earlier this month as part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation captured on videos and photos that sparked outrage. Images that garnered national attention depicted Liam wearing a blue bunny hat and his school backpack.
The two are currently detained at the Dilley ICE detention center, a facility in Texas designed to house immigrant families with underage children who have been accused of violating federal immigration law.
CBS News exclusively reported last week that the government could not immediately deport Liam and his father, because they have pending immigration court cases that have not been fully adjudicated.
In his order Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery blocked any attempt to deport the family "until further order from this Court." He also prohibited ICE from transferring the son and father from the Western District of Texas "during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court."
The boy and his father were taken into ICE custody on Jan. 20 in the Minneapolis area, where the Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal immigration agents to oversee the largest operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS has said Liam's father is an Ecuadorian immigrant living in the U.S. illegally and has accused him of trying to evade ICE officers when they sought to arrest them. An attorney for the family said Liam's father appears to lack a criminal record, an allegation DHS has not yet contested.
Last week, Marcos Charles, the head of ICE's deportation branch, said his officers targeted Liam's father — not the child — during an arrest operation on Jan. 20. Charles said Liam was with his father inside a vehicle when ICE officers approached them.
Charles said Liam's father tried to escape on foot, "abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle." He said an officer stayed with Liam, while others arrested his father. ICE officers "cared for" Liam and took him to a drive-through restaurant, Charles added.
ICE officers tried to get Liam's family to take the child but the "people inside refused to take him in and open the door," according to Charles. He noted his officers were "heartbroken" by the incident.
Sergio Amezcua, a pastor who said he's spoken to Liam's mother, said she "was terrified" during the incident.
"ICE agents were trying to use the baby for her to come out of her house," Amezcua said on CNN. "But the neighbors step[ped] up. Neighbors advised her not to do it."
