Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos is no longer in an immigration cell in Texas. After a whirlwind few weeks that started with an arrest outside his school and ended with a judge stepping in, he is back with his family and trying to settle into something like a normal childhood again. The question now is not whether he is safe in the short term, but what his life looks like after that terrifying stretch in federal custody.
For everyone who watched his story unfold, the immediate concern was simple: where is Liam now, and who is looking out for him. The answer, for the moment, is reassuring. He is home in Minneapolis with his father, surrounded by relatives and community members who pushed hard to get him out of detention, even as the legal fight around his immigration case continues in the background.
Back home in Minneapolis, at least for now
Liam’s story now centers on Minneapolis, the city where he goes to preschool and where his extended family has been waiting for him. After his release from federal custody, he and his father arrived at the airport in Minneapolis, greeted by relatives who had spent days unsure if they would ever see him walk through those doors again. Reporting describes the 5-year-old clutching his things and heading toward a reunion that had felt painfully out of reach only a short time earlier, a moment that underscored how much of his young life is now shaped by immigration enforcement.
Earlier this year, 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, a preschooler from Minneapolis, Minnesota, had been taken into custody by immigration officers after school, an experience that would be jarring for any adult, let alone a child who should have been thinking about snack time and storybooks. Now that he is back in Minnesota, the focus for his family is on rebuilding a routine that looks more like playdates and classroom projects than court filings and detention schedules, even as they know that the legal questions around his status are far from resolved.
From Dilley detention to a judge’s order
The turning point in Liam’s case came in Texas, where he and his father were held at a federal immigration facility in DILLEY. Both were taken to a federal detention facility in Texas after immigration officers picked them up, and their confinement quickly drew attention from advocates and elected officials who argued that a 5-year-old should not be spending his days behind barbed wire. A judge ultimately ordered their release, with a Saturday ruling stating that their confinement violated constitutional protections, a sharp rebuke of how the case had been handled up to that point and a reminder that even within the current system, there are legal limits to how far enforcement can go with children.
That decision meant that Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, could walk out of the DILLEY, Texas facility and start the journey back to Minnesota. Coverage of the ruling notes that the judge’s order applied directly to their situation in the immigration detention center, not to the broader policies that allowed a preschooler to be locked up in the first place. Even so, the fact that a court had to step in at all has become part of the public conversation about how far ICE should go when children are involved.
The flight out of Texas and the moment of return
Once the judge ordered their release, the logistics of getting Liam home moved quickly. Reporting describes how Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, boarded a flight out of Texas after leaving the detention facility, a quiet but crucial step in getting them back to their lives. The image of a small child walking onto a plane with his father, not for a vacation but as an escape from confinement, captures just how upside down his January had become, and how unusual it is to see a kindergartner at the center of a federal immigration case.
On that trip, the focus was on getting to Minneapolis, where Liam’s mother and other relatives were waiting. One account notes that both were taken to a federal detention facility in Texas before that flight, underscoring how quickly their world had shifted from everyday routines to the strict rules of a locked facility. The journey out of Texas, and the moment they stepped onto the plane, marked the first real sign that the worst of the ordeal might be over, a point highlighted in coverage of the father and son leaving detention behind.
Community pressure, political attention, and ICE’s role
Liam’s case did not unfold in a vacuum. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias became a rallying point for people in Minnesota and beyond who were already worried about how immigration enforcement affects children. Among those speaking out was Congresswoman Ilan Omar, who used her platform to criticize the detention and to call attention to what she described as a “perfidious lust for unbridled power,” language that signaled just how strongly she viewed the decision to hold a 5-year-old in custody. Her comments, shared widely, helped push Liam’s story into the national spotlight and added political weight to the calls for his release, as reflected in coverage that highlighted the role of Congresswoman Ilan Omar.
At the center of all of this is ICE, the agency that took Liam into custody and placed him and his father in detention. One detailed account notes that a five-year-old boy and father detained by ICE returned home to Minnesota only after a judge ordered their release on Saturday, a sequence that underscores how much power the agency holds over families’ lives and how dependent those families are on the courts to check that power. The fact that Five-year-old boy and father detained by ICE return home to Minnesota only after that judicial intervention has fueled broader criticism of how the agency handles cases involving children, with advocates pointing to Liam’s experience as a clear example of why policy changes are needed, as described in reporting on the ICE detention that preceded his return.
What Liam’s life looks like now, and what comes next
So where is 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos now? The clearest answer is that he is back in Minnesota with his father, trying to reclaim the rhythms of early childhood. One report notes that Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy who was taken into ICE custody, is back in Minnesota with his father after a judge ordered the release, a simple sentence that carries a lot of relief for his family and supporters. Another account describes how five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias are back in Minnesota, a phrase that has become shorthand for the end of the most frightening chapter of their ordeal, as reflected in coverage of the family reunion.
At the same time, the legal and emotional fallout is not over. One detailed account notes that Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy who was taken into ICE custody, is back in Minnesota with his father after a judge ordered the release, but it does not suggest that their immigration case has been fully resolved, only that they are no longer behind bars. Another report describes how 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, a preschooler from Minneapolis, Minnesota, lived through a frightening experience in January 2026 when he was taken by officers after school one day, a memory that will not disappear just because he is sleeping in his own bed again. For now, he is back home in Minneapolis, his father by his side, his case still a symbol of how immigration enforcement can collide with childhood in ways that feel impossible to justify.
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