By KSTP and ABC News
Pictures of a 5-year-old boy being taken into ICE custody in Columbia Heights on Jan. 20, 2026. (Columbia Heights Public Schools)
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have been ordered to be released by a federal judge in Texas.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, released from the immigration detention center at Dilley “as soon as practicable” but no later than February 3.
“Any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of Petitioners under this present detention is prohibited,” the judge wrote in his order.
As previously reported, Biery had ordered the federal government on Monday to keep both of them within the Western District of Texas while their legal case proceeded.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed Conejo Arias is an “illegal alien.”
Immigration attorney Marc Prokosch has pushed back on that claim, saying Conejo Arias has no criminal record, entered the country legally, and declared his intent to seek asylum at the border.
