Thousands of protesters join ‘ICE OUT’ rallies across the US
Protesters across the U.S. participated in “ICE OUT” rallies to demand accountability for ICE officers and to defund or eliminate their funding.
A federal judge in Texas has ordered that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father be released from ICE detention “as soon as possible” and no later than February 3.
On January 31, U.S. District Judge Fred Beery ordered that Liam and his father, asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias, be released from an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. Biery previously ruled on Jan. 27 that a Minnesota preschooler and his father could not be deported.
The detention of Conejo and his son Liam attracted national attention, with many criticizing ICE after a photo began circulating on January 20 of the 5-year-old boy wearing a blue bunny hat being held in his driveway.
“This case stems from the government’s haphazard and incompetent implementation of pursuing daily deportation quotas despite the clear need to traumatize children,” Biery wrote in his Jan. 31 order.
Mr. Biery’s order continued: “An observation of human behavior confirms that in some of us there is an unbridled evil desire for power and an endless infliction of brutality in that quest, and a lack of human decency. And the rule of law is to be damned.”
Biery’s scathing order came on the same day a federal judge in Minnesota ruled that the court would not order a halt to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in the city.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez’s decision on January 31 came after a lawsuit by state officials calling it a “federal oppression” and accusing the federal government of being “unconstitutional and illegal.” The lawsuit also accused immigration officials of civil rights violations, including racial profiling of citizens and illegal detention of Minnesota residents.
Why were Liam and his father detained?
Liam and his father were picked up by ICE in the driveway after school. The detentions came after officials rejected requests from adults known to the family to take custody of the children. Instead, the staff took the boy to the front door and ordered him to knock — “effectively using the 5-year-old as bait,” according to a Columbia Heights Public Schools news release.
ICE disputes the claim, but Vice President J.D. Vance defended the agency on January 22, saying the agency was targeting Conejo, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador who is accused of trying to flee from immigration authorities. Regarding the boy, he said, “Is it okay to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?”
Mark Prokosch, a Minnesota immigration attorney representing Liam’s family, previously rejected federal authorities’ explanation for the arrest, saying Conejo was in the country legally and awaiting asylum, a claim the government also disputes.
“How can you justify locking up a child?” Prokosh told reporters at a news conference last week, adding that Conejo had no criminal record and his family was in the country legally.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also criticized the detention, saying Liam was “not a threat to our community.”
Lawyer says Liam and family entered US in 2024
Prokosh said Liam and his family applied for asylum using the Customs and Border Protection app before entering the United States in 2024 at the official port of entry in Brownsville, Texas.
“They have come duly and we are pursuing legal avenues,” he said, without specifying what led them to flee Ecuador, considered one of the most violent countries in Latin America, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Congeos came to the United States in search of a “good life” away from Ecuador’s economic turmoil and unstable employment, his brother Luis Conejo told CNN.
Contributed by Jeanine Santucci & Amanda Lee Myers/USA TODAY
