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Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, arrived back in the Minneapolis area on Sunday morning after being released from a South Texas immigration detention center under a federal court order.
The pair boarded a flight from San Antonio to Minneapolis Sunday morning after U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) accompanied them from the South Texas Family Residential Center, where they had been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Castro’s congressional office confirmed.
“Liam is now back home. With his hat and backpack,” Castro wrote on social media.
“Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all the children and families are back home,” he wrote.
Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) February 1, 2026
Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We… pic.twitter.com/XmUvXEthma
A protest and prayer vigil is planned for Sunday afternoon at the Dilley ICE detention center, organized by LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have been freed. However, there are countless other families still held at the South Texas Family Residential Center,” LULAC wrote in a statement.
“A prayer vigil and public action to call attention to the unsafe, inhumane, and dangerous conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center, where Latino families and other asylum seekers and migrants are being detained in violation of their civil and human rights,” the organization said.
Ramos’ return followed a sharply worded ruling by San Antonio-based U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who ordered the government to release the father and son “as soon as practicable,” setting a deadline of Feb. 3, 2026, and prohibiting their transfer to another facility.
The judge criticized the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and raised constitutional concerns about the use of administrative warrants in arrests and detention.
Liam and his father were detained in the Minneapolis suburbs in late January after immigration officers took Conejo Arias into custody, an incident that drew national attention after images of the child surrounded by officers circulated online.
Advocates and some elected officials accused agents of using the child to coax other family members to the door. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has denied that allegation, saying the government attempted to place the child with a parent or guardian and disputing claims about the arrest circumstances.
The detention in Dilley prompted protests, including one that resulted in the use of tear gas, and multiple political visits. In an interview with TPR last week, Castro said Liam appeared unwell and relayed the father’s concerns that the boy had not been eating normally and was repeatedly asking for his mother and to return to school.
The family’s legal case is ongoing. The judge’s order did not resolve Conejo Arias’ immigration status, but it required their release while his pending claims proceed, underscoring the broader legal and political fight over aggressive immigration detention tactics involving children.
