A federal judge has delivered a scathing rebuke of U.S. immigration enforcement practices while ordering the immediate release of a five-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention facility. The case involves Liam Conejo Ramos, whose arrest while wearing a blue bunny-shaped hat and Spider-Man backpack outside his Minneapolis home sparked national outrage.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, granted an emergency petition filed by the family’s legal representation on Saturday. His ruling mandated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) release both Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, by February 3rd.
In a remarkably candid judicial opinion, Judge Biery condemned what he characterized as “the perfidious lust for unbridled power” driving immigration enforcement operations. The court’s decision included the photograph of young Liam in his distinctive blue hat, making the child’s humanity central to the proceedings.
“This case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas,” Judge Biery wrote, “apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
Immigration officials had previously defended the operation, stating they did not “target a child” but were conducting an operation against Conejo Arias, whom they identified as an “illegal alien” who allegedly “abandoned” his son during the apprehension.
According to family attorney Marc Prokosch, the detained individuals had entered the United States from Ecuador in 2024 seeking asylum and had been complying with established immigration protocols. Both were being held at a San Antonio, Texas detention center at the time of the ruling.
The case emerges amid intensified immigration enforcement in Minneapolis under the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” This initiative has drawn increased scrutiny following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in the city, which prompted officials to suggest a potential pullback of federal forces.
In a related judicial development on Saturday, a separate federal judge denied Minnesota’s request to block the deployment of thousands of immigration agents in the state, ruling that plaintiffs had not demonstrated the activity’s unlawfulness.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comment regarding Judge Biery’s ruling or the allegations contained within it.