ICE agents stand next to a boy, who a witness identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old that school officials said was detained in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 20, 2026. Rachel James/via REUTERS
DETROIT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son, Liam Conejo Ramos, whom immigration officers detained during a Minnesota raid.
The boy — seen in a now-viral photo wearing a blue bunny hat outside his house as federal agents stood nearby — was one of four students detained by immigration officials earlier this month in a Minneapolis suburb, according to the Columbia Heights Public School District.
"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," U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote in a ruling published on Saturday.
"Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place."
The Ecuadorean boy and his father, who entered the United States legally as asylum applicants, were sent to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, their attorney Marc Prokosch previously told Reuters.
Prokosch and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return requests for comment.
Judge Biery, appointed by then-President Bill Clinton, blasted the administration of President Donald Trump in his three-page order.
He likened the Trump administration's behavior to that of the British king decried in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, including sending "Swarms of Officers to harass our People," exciting "domestic Insurrection among us" and "quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us."
Biery cited the Constitution's requirement that an arrest warrant must be based on a judge finding probable cause of a crime. The use of "administrative warrants," issued by immigration officials, "is called the fox guarding the henhouse," he wrote.
"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," Biery wrote. "And the rule of law be damned."
Armed and masked officers detained two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to Liam, school district Superintendent Zena Stenvik said last week.
(Reporting by Kalea Hall; Additional reporting by William Mallard; Editing by Sergio Non and Alistair Bell)
