5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was taken to an ICE detention facility in Texas along with his father, finally returned home to Minneapolis on Sunday and received his pilot wings thanks to Delta Air Lines pilots on the flight from San Antonio.
Ramos and his father were abducted by ICE agents on their way home from preschool in the Minneapolis area last month; Ramos is the fourth student from the Columbia Heights School District to be swept up in the Trump administration's nationwide immigration crackdown.
The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, told the press that Ramos and his family are originally from Ecuador and presented themselves to border officers in Texas in December 2024 to apply for asylum. He stressed they "are not illegal aliens" and that "they came legally, and are pursuing a legal pathway.”
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said Ramos was taken into custody in his family’s driveway after his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, drove him home. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Arias was the focus of a "targeted" ICE operation.
Ramos' case horrified the country when Stenvik said "another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused." Instead, an agent “led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home—essentially using a 5-year-old as bait."
When asked how he is feeling, the boy, speaking to ABC News' John Quiñones in an exclusive interview as the pair flew home, told ABC News in Spanish, "Good."
His father said:
"Liam is very happy to be going back. He's going to see his mom and his brother again."
And Ramos received a new souvenir on the flight—pilot wings from the pilots themselves, per Quiñones:
"Some very kind pilots on the @delta flight from San Antonio - Minneapolis today. 5 year old, Liam Conejo Ramos was in Heaven. What a difference 24 hours make. From DHS detention in Texas - to this. Being a kid again. And now, Liam is home again.
You can see footage of the moment below.
Texas Democratic Representative Joaquín Castro later published photographs showing Ramos had made it home safely.
@JoaquinCastro/X
@JoaquinCastro/X
Castro shared the following message to X:
"Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack."
"Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home."
He also shared a picture of a letter he wrote to the boy in which he encourages him to remember that "America became a prosperous nation because of immigrants, not in spite of them."
@JoaquinCastro/X
Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, who worked diligently with Castro to secure Ramos' release, also shared a photo of her own, writing:
"Liam is home now and we are grateful to @JoaquinCastrotx for traveling to Minneapolis with him and his dad. Welcome home Liam."
@IlhanMN/X
Many were moved to see the boy had returned home safely.
In remarks to ABC News, Conejo Arias said the federal government should not "be so unfair with the Latino population," saying that "many times, it’s unjust that they arrest people who only come to this country to work hard and help their families get ahead." He stressed that "we were also arrested unjustly."
He said agents in Texas denied his son medication when he got sick and that "the doctor said she didn't have any to give us." He described conditions at Dilley Detention Center as "not great."
Earlier, in an order releasing Conejo Arias and his son, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery said the case "has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."
He condemned the actions of the Trump administration, saying that "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin insisted in a statement after the ruling that "ICE did NOT target or arrest a child." She accused Conejo Arias of "abandoning his child," an account that differs from what Conejo Arias, his family's attorney, and schools officials said occurred.
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