Fundraiser for five-year-old boy taken by ICE receives more than $100,000 | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
More than $110,000 was raised Thursday in a fundraiser for the family of a five-year-old Minneapolis boy who was seized by immigration officers and transported with his father to a detention center in Texas.
attractive“Help Bring 5-Year-Old Liam Home” was founded by a person named Sarai Orquiz, who said the mother of preschooler Liam Ramos asked her to host a fundraiser to pay for the legal costs of his release from custody.
“This is an extremely difficult time for her… She is incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support and kindness shown by the community,” the statement said.
Orquiz said he was “in contact” with the boy’s mother, Erica, and that the family was “doing what they could to reunite with Liam and his father,” but legal help was expensive.
“Erica has been in contact with her son and husband, who say they are ‘fine,’ but we all understand that the reality of the situation is far from that,” he wrote.
“They were kidnapped and transported across the country without being allowed to contact their families or a lawyer.”
The organizer of the appeal said that Erica was added as a beneficiary and tried to link her bank account so that she could receive donations directly.
The fundraiser was temporarily suspended for a few hours Thursday, but was back in operation by the afternoon, with donations remaining above $110,000.
GoFundMe did not immediately respond to questions, but accounts may be suspended for a variety of reasons, including when the platform checks the authenticity of the use or recipient of an account or fund.
Attempts to contact the organization that organized the appeal were unsuccessful.
The details in the introduction match information that the superintendent of the school district in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights said Wednesday that Ramos and his father were detained in the driveway on Tuesday and then taken to a detention center in Texas.
Superintendent Zena Stenvik said Liam, who just turned five, was one of four children in the school district detained by federal immigration officials during the Trump administration’s enforcement of the district over the past two weeks.
“For more than 24 hours, Liam’s mother had no idea where her son and her husband were. She only learned where they were when the father was finally able to call from Texas,” Orquiz wrote, adding that it was “unimaginable” for the child to be placed so far from his home.
“This sudden separation has left their family heartbroken and desperate to return them home. Liam’s mother and siblings miss him terribly and are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being.”
Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, said he believed the father and son were in custody together. He said that the family has an active asylum case, but there is no deportation order against them.
“They didn’t come here illegally, they’re not criminals,” he said.
One Publish on X On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that the boy’s father “abandoned” his son as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents tried to detain him.
“ICE did not target a child. The child was ABANDONED,” the post said.
“On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to detain Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED to the United States by the Biden administration.
“As agents approached the driver, 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 other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
The post did not mention why the child was later detained. Parents were allegedly asked if they wanted to be taken with their children, or ICE would “place the children with a safe person of the parent’s designation.”
