A U.S. congressman announced on Sunday (February 1) that undocumented immigrants Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son Liam Conejo Ramos have left a detention center in Texas and returned to their home in the outskirts of Minneapolis.
Texas Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro took to social media to share that he picked them up from the detention center last Saturday night (January 31) and escorted them back to Minnesota on Sunday.
Last Saturday, a federal judge ordered the release of Ecuadorian citizen Arias and his son. They were previously detained by immigration officials during an immigration enforcement raid in Minnesota.
The father and son entered the U.S. from a southern border crossing on December 14, 2024, and applied for asylum upon arrival.
On January 20, the duo was taken by Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) during an enforcement action in Columbia Heights, a suburb of Minneapolis, and subsequently transported to an immigration detention center in Texas.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery criticized the Trump administration’s “ill-considered actions, lack of implementation… pursuit of daily deportation quotas, even if it means causing trauma to children,” in his ruling last Saturday.
Judge Biery was appointed by former President Bill Clinton. He argued that arrests must be based on probable cause determined by a judge, stating that the use of “administrative warrants” issued by immigration judges is akin to “letting the fox guard the henhouse.”
In recent months, Trump’s immigration enforcement actions in Democratic-leaning states like Minnesota have faced large-scale protests, leading to riots and two fatal shooting incidents. Democrats are calling for reforms, including mandatory use of body cameras by ICE agents, ending mobile patrols, and ceasing the use of masks.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Sunday that President Trump does not plan to ease the crackdown on illegal immigrants.
During an interview on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” she said, “President Trump will never waver in his commitment to the nearly 80 million Americans who voted for him: to deport illegal immigrant criminals who come here violating our laws and then commit further violent crimes against American citizens.”
She urged Democrats to “stop demonizing” immigrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents, calling them true patriots who deserve respect. She criticized the “horrifying” comparisons of federal agents to Nazi Gestapo, pointing out that such rhetoric has led to increasing incidents of violence and threats against federal law enforcement officers.
(This article references reporting from Reuters)