Judge orders release of 5-year-old from ICE detention

Published January 31, 2026 9:19pm ET



A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release a 5-year-old boy and his father from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center after both were taken into custody as part of an immigration operation in Minneapolis.

Five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were arrested as ICE officers targeted Arias, who the Department of Homeland Security says is an illegal immigrant from Ecuador. Shortly after the arrest, images of Ramos being held by an officer spread online, leading to significant backlash over the administration’s mass deportation agenda. The DHS insisted that Arias “abandoned” his child when he fled from officers, with the one officer staying with Ramos for protection until Arias was arrested. But both ended up being sent to a federal detention center in Texas, where they have been held for over a week.

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