Liam Conejo, the five-year-old boy of Ecuadorian origin who was detained by ICE in Minneapolis on January 20, was released this Sunday along with his father.
They were both held at the Dilley Detention Centersouth of San Antonio.
This Sunday, the day they were released, They took a flight to Minneapoliswhere they reside while waiting for the resolution on your asylum application.
This fact occurs after the order issued by the federal judge for the Western District of Texas, Fred Biery, in which demanded the provisional release of Liam and his fatherAdrián Alexander Conejo Arias.
The chain ABC News reported the news and shared an exclusive video where the boy is seen hugging his father. “I’m very happy to finally be able to return home,” the father told the station’s reporter.
Democratic Congressman Joaquín Castro, who visited the family detention center with other legislators last week, confirmed on his X account that they were released and that today they returned to Minneapolis (Minnesota).
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
Criticism of Trump
The arrest of Conejo Arias and his son in Minnesota sparked a wave of outrage over the boy’s age.
The lawyers of the two Ecuadorians assure that The Conejo family arrived in the country regularly and had already formally requested asylum in the country.
Federal agencies maintain that they were not legally in the country at the time of their arrest and that the deadline they had to leave the United States ended in April.
The judge’s ruling singles out the federal administration for “ignoring an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence” because Conejo’s case “has its genesis in an attempt to apply deportation quotas that were poorly conceived and applied incompetently, even traumatizing children.”
The judge highlights that the “administrative orders issued by the executive do not stand up to evidence of probable cause“. “It is what is called putting the fox to guard the henhouse. The Constitution requires having an independent judicial agent,” he argued.
According to the newspaper, the judge noted that the case against both “has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented search by the government of daily deportation feesapparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) further described Adrian Alexander Conejo AriasLiam’s father, as an undocumented immigrant and noted that he was one of the main targets of the federal operation that led to his arrest.