Five-year-old Ecuadorian boy Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were released from the immigration center in Texas, where they had been detained since January 22 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, causing great indignation in the country.
Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, who visited the family detention center along with other legislators, confirmed in his X account that father and son were released and returned to Minneapolis (Minnesota) on Sunday, after a federal judge in Texas ordered their immediate release on Saturday.
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are released from prison
Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning.
Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We… pic.twitter.com/XmUvXEthma
– Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) February 1, 2026
The release of the Ecuadorians from the center in Dilley, south of San Antonio (Texas), follows an order issued by federal judge Fred Biery, who in his ruling ordered their release by Tuesday.
“Five-year-old Liam and his father, Adrian, were released from the Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night (Saturday) and escorted them back to Minnesota,” the congressman‘s message stated.
In his message, Joaquín Castro included several photos, one in which the child is on a sofa in his home and another apparently taken outside the family center.
“Liam is already home. With his hat and backpack. Thank you to everyone who demanded Liam’s freedom. We will not stop until all the children and their families come home,” the congressman further noted.
When the boy was arrested he was wearing a blue bunny winter hat and a Spiderman backpack, which he asked about while at the center.
After his visit to the center, Castro indicated that his father told him that the boy “has not been the same” since the family was detained and that he was concerned for his well-being.
This is how it was released
Liam and his Dad walked out of Dilley detention center last night. They should have never been there in the first place. Thanks to your voices and outcry, they are now free. pic.twitter.com/eUulSWBROn
– Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) February 1, 2026
Following her publication in which she disclosed that Liam and his father were
In his ruling, the Texas judge further noted that the child and his father could face deportation due to the “archaic” immigration system, but “that outcome should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than the current one.”
Adrian Conejo was returning home with Lima after picking up his son from school when they were detained on Jan. 20 as part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s mass deportation operation in Minneapolis, after which an ICE agent brought the boy to the door of his home and asked him to call.
His mother, who is pregnant, was there and was looking out the window at what was happening, but her husband yelled at her from the street not to open the door. According to Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the local school district, who was passing by the scene at the time, the boy and his father were later transported to the center in Texas.
Following the judge’s order on Saturday, the school district Liam attends was pleased with the decision, “We want all children to be released from detention centers and families that have been unjustly separated to be reunited.”
Filed as: Liam Conejo Ramos released
With information from EFE
