Attorneys for the federal government have filed an appeal to return 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
The appeal, filed on Wednesday, comes just over two months after a judge ordered the government to release Liam and his father from the ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas, and return them to Minnesota.
Liam and Conejo Arias’ arrest in Columbia Heights and subsequent detention in Texas gained national attention, and Liam’s blue bunny hat quickly became a symbol of the children swept up in ICE operations.
5-year-old and father return to Minnesota after ICE detention
In a scathing order for the father and son’s release, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ripped “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
Liam and his father came from Ecuador, legally entering the U.S. as asylum-seekers in 2022 and had a pending asylum claim at the time of their initial detention. However, that claim was denied in immigration court, according to their attorney. They now have an order for removal to Ecuador.
In a statement, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Liam and Conejo Arias “received full due process and were issued a final order of removal on February 19.”
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country,” the spokesperson said.
