Judge orders release of five-year-old, father detained in Minnesota ICE raid
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A photo of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos being arrested by ICE officials in his blue bunny hat went viral on social media.
PHOTOS: X, NYTIMES
- A judge ordered the release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his son, Liam Conejo Ramos, detained during a Minnesota raid.
- Judge Biery criticised the "ill-conceived" deportation quotas that led to the traumatising detention of children.
- Liam, his father, and three other students were detained, sparking outrage and highlighting concerns about immigration policy.
AI generated
DETROIT - A federal judge has ordered the release of Mr Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son, Liam Conejo Ramos, whom immigration officers detained during a Minnesota raid.
The boy – seen in a now viral photo that showed him wearing a blue bunny hat outside his house as federal agents stood nearby – was one of four students detained by immigration officials
“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children,” US District Judge Fred Biery wrote in a ruling published on Jan 31.
“Ultimately, petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.”
The Ecuadorean boy and his father, who entered the US legally as asylum applicants, were sent to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, their attorney Marc Prokosch previously told Reuters.
Liam and his father (right) being visited in ICE detention on Jan 28 by Democratic US Congressman Joaquin Castro.
PHOTO: AFP
Mr Prokosch and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return requests for comment.
Judge Biery, appointed by then President Bill Clinton, blasted the administration of President Donald Trump in his three-page order.
He likened the Trump administration’s behaviour to that of the British king decried in the US Declaration of Independence, including sending “swarms of officers to harass our people”, exciting “domestic insurrection among us” and “quartering large bodies of armed troops among us”.
Judge Biery cited the Constitution’s requirement that an arrest warrant must be based on a judge finding probable cause of a crime.
The use of “administrative warrants”, issued by immigration officials, “is called the fox guarding the hen house”, he wrote.
“Observing human behaviour 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,” Judge Biery wrote. “And the rule of law be damned.”
Armed and masked officers detained two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to Liam, school district Superintendent Zena Stenvik said last week. REUTERS
