Federal judge blocks deportation of 5-year-old boy and father taken in Minnesota immigration operation

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Top ICE official rejects 'false narrative' over incident involving 5-year-old child in Minnesota

ICE Executive Assistant Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Marcos Charles provides new details about incident involving 5-year-old boy in Minnesota while also condemning the behavior of agitators that stormed a church in St. Paul.

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father, who were taken into custody last week in Minnesota. 

Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias and his son, Liam Ramos, were taken into custody by federal immigration authorities and are being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. 

The temporary block issued by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery stays in place while their case is being litigated. Conejo and Ramos can't be transferred from the judicial district where they are being held, according to the order.

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Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, the father of Liam Ramos, is being detained with his son in Texas after being arrested by federal immigration authorities. A federal judge has issued a temporary block on the deportation of the father and son.  (Obtained by Columbia Heights Public Schools / Department Homeland Security)

Federal authorities were trying to take Conejo into custody in Minneapolis last week when he fled and left Ramos, who was arriving home from preschool, the Department of Homeland Security said. 

Some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers remained at the scene with the boy while others chased down Conejo, who was apprehended soon after. 

"The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration. As agents approached, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias fled on foot—abandoning his child."

Democrats have claimed that Ramos was "kidnapped" and used as "bait" to get his father. 

However, the ICE officers made multiple attempts to have Ramo's mother, who was inside her home, take custody of her son, but she refused, DHS said. 

"Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken her into custody," McLaughlin said. "The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.

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Media outlets were quick to parrot Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who shared an image of a five-year-old boy and claimed he was detained by ICE while coming home from pre-school. (Obtained by Columbia Heights Public Schools)

"Following the mother’s abandonment of the child, officers abided by the father’s wishes to keep the child with him. Father and son are together at Dilley [Immigration Processing Center]," DHS said in an X post. 

Conejo entered the U.S. illegally in December 2024 and was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration, DHS said. The family’s attorney said he had a pending asylum claim allowing him to stay in the country.

Fox News was told by the agency that Conejo Arias had the opportunity to utilize a process known as VR, voluntary return, to leave the U.S. with no immigration consequences, but he declined. 

President Trump says tougher ICE enforcement is forcing violent criminal illegal immigrants out of the US, citing reverse migration, foreign prison releases and expanded metro raids. (SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS and Ramos’ attorney, Jennifer Scarborough.