5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, father ordered released from immigration detention center
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers who were arrested last week in Minnesota, were ordered to be released by a federal judge in Texas on Saturday.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, released from the immigration detention center at Dilley "as soon as practicable" but no later than Feb. 3.
"Any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of Petitioners under this present detention is prohibited," the judge wrote in his order.
The boy was apprehended by immigration officials 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.
They had a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States, ABC News previously reported.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged the father abandoned his son when federal agents approached to arrest him. 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. 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. As agents approached, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias fled on foot--abandoning his child. 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. Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken her into custody. The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child. 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.
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. "And the rule of law be damned."
Judge Biery said that the father and son ultimately may "return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation," but added that it should be a result "through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place."
The judge concluded his opinion with a photo of the five-year-old when he was detained.
The superintendent of the school district attended by Liam has spoken with the family, according to a statement from the district.
"Columbia Heights Public Schools is so happy to hear the announcement that Liam and his father will be released and returned home," the district said. "We want all children to be released from detention centers and the reunification of families who have been unjustly separated."
-ABC News' Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
