Judge Orders Release of 5-Year-Old Detained in Minnesota ICE Raid
A federal judge ordered the release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son, Liam Conejo Ramos, who were detained by immigration officers during the Minnesota raid.
The boy seen in a viral photo showing him wearing a blue bunny hat in front of his home while federal agents stood nearby was one of four students detained by immigration authorities in a suburb of Minneapolis earlier this month, according to the Columbia Heights Public School District.
“The case has its origins in the government’s ill-conceived and incompetent pursuit of daily deportation quotas, even when this apparently involved traumatizing children,” U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote in a decision issued Saturday. he wrote.
“Ultimately, Petitioners may return to their home countries involuntarily or through self-deportation due to the United States’ arcane immigration system. But this outcome must occur through a more orderly and humane policy than what is currently in effect.”
The Ecuadorian boy and his father, who entered the United States legally to apply for asylum, were sent to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, their lawyer Marc Prokosch previously told Reuters.
Prokosch and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return requests for comment.
Armed and masked officers detained Liam, as well as two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old, school district superintendent Zena Stenvik said last week.
