Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, visited 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos at a ICE detention center in Texas on Wednesday, days after the boy was detained by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota, and called for his release.
Castro has condemned the detention of the child, who was confronted in his driveway last week alongside his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias. Castro said he spoke with the father, who told him that “Liam has been very depressed” and “hasn’t been eating well,” and that he repeatedly asks if he can go back to school.
“The sad tragedy of all of this is that Liam is emblematic of the inhumanity of our detention system and ICE operations,” Castro said at a news conference after the visit.
Crockett condemned the conditions at the detention facility, where she said Liam has no change of clothes and where there is no education being provided to the children.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from deporting the father and son.
Trump administration officials denied claims that officers used the 5-year-old as “bait” to lure his family members out of their home, and said he was “abandoned” by his father who fled as officers attempted to arrest him.
Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam attends preschool, said she drove to his home upon hearing the news. Stenvik said an adult in Liam’s home had offered to take him. Still, Liam was detained and transported out of the state.
Liam’s older brother, who is in middle school, came home shortly after to find his brother and father missing.
Trump administration officials were quick to defend the detainment.
“So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old,” Vice President JD Vance said. “Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
A photo of Liam wearing his bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack at the time of his detainment sparked nationwide outcry.
After federal immigration officers fatally shot Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens, in Minnesota within the span of three weeks, the Trump administration has faced increased scrutiny over its immigration enforcement strategy. Calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s impeachment have grown.
Even immigration hard-liners and Trump loyalists, such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have called for the White House to “recalibrate.”
“In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country,” Abbott said Monday, adding that while ICE is law enforcement, the White House needs “to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that respect is going to be re-instilled.”
Rosa Flores is a national correspondent for MS NOW.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.