Judge orders 5-year-old detained in Minnesota and dad to be released from ICE detention in Texas

A federal judge in Texas on Saturday ordered 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father to be released from immigration detention.

Granting an emergency request filed by the family's lawyer, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery directed government officials to release Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos and his son, who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month in Minnesota, from detention "as soon as practicable," but no later than Tuesday, Feb. 3.

"We are now working closely with our clients and their family to ensure a safe and timely reunion," Jennifer Scarborough, one of the attorneys representing the family, told CBS Minnesota in a statement. "We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal."

CBS News reached out to representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, seeking comment on Saturday's order but has not received a response.

Earlier in the week, Biery had blocked ICE from deporting Liam and his family or transferring them away from Texas, while the legal case unfolded.

In an opinion accompanying his ruling, Biery said the detention of Liam and his father "has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

The judge also cited the Declaration of Independence, saying the government's ignorance of it is "apparent."

Biery signed his opinion on Saturday with a photo of Liam seen wearing a blue bunny hat and his school backpack as he was being detained. The photo garnered national attention and sparked outrage.

Since their detention, Liam and his father have been held 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.

Representatives for Liam and his father said the family is from Ecuador and that they entered the U.S. in 2024 under a now-defunct Biden-era system that allowed asylum-seekers to use a phone app to schedule an appointment to be processed at an official border entry.

DHS has said it has no record of the family using that app, formerly known as CBP One. The agency has called Liam's father an "illegal alien" and accused him of trying to flee ICE officers when they sought to arrest him on Jan. 20 and abandoning Liam in a vehicle.

DHS officials have also alleged that ICE officers tried to get Liam's mother to take him in, but that she refused to do so. Individuals who have spoken with the family have disputed that claim, saying Liam's mother did not open the door out of concerns she would also be arrested by ICE.

According to Justice Department records reviewed by CBS News, Liam and his father have active, pending immigration court cases. That means they're facing deportation proceedings before an immigration judge. But it also means they can't be legally deported until a judge fully adjudicates their cases.

A lawyer for the family has said Liam's father does not have a criminal record, and DHS officials have not argued otherwise.

Liam and his father were taken into custody during a massive crackdown staged by thousands of federal immigration agents deployed to the Minneapolis area by the Trump administration. The large-scale deployment of ICE and Border Patrol agents there has angered local leaders and triggered protests that intensified after federal officers killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens and Minneapolis residents.

Earlier this week, following intense bipartisan outcry over Pretti's killing and the administration's response, White House border czar Tom Homan suggested officials could start a "drawdown" of federal agents from Minneapolis, if local officials expanded their cooperation with ICE.