Lawmakers Demand Release of 5-Year-Old Detained Amidst Renewed Scrutiny of Trump Immigration Policies
A growing outcry is demanding the immediate release of a five-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention center, highlighting escalating concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics and the conditions within family detention facilities.
The case of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, has ignited a firestorm after their arrest in a Minneapolis suburb last week. Photographs of Liam, clutching a Spider-Man backpack and wearing an oversized winter hat, being detained by federal authorities quickly went viral, becoming a potent symbol of what critics call the government’s increasingly harsh approach to immigration. The pair were transported to the South Texas Family Residential Center, approximately 70 miles south of San Antonio, but a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked their deportation on Monday.
U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and Jasmine Crockett of Dallas met with the family on Wednesday, learning that Liam, who entered the U.S. legally through the Biden-era CBP One application, is reportedly “very depressed,” refusing to eat, and exhibiting lethargy, according to Castro. “His father said that Liam has been sleeping a lot, that he’s been asking about his family, his mom and his classmates, and saying that he wants to be back in school,” Castro relayed, adding that “most of America wants Liam released.”
However, Castro emphasized a broader concern: “the sad tragedy of all of this is that Liam is emblematic of the inhumanity of our (immigration) detention system.” During their visit, the lawmakers encountered dozens of other families, including parents with a two-month-old infant, and observed numerous children under the age of five receiving no formal education despite being detained for as long as eight months. Attorneys report that the length of detention has significantly increased under the Trump administration.
“The treatment that these people are suffering under right now is worse than those that are accused and sometimes even convicted of crimes,” asserted Crockett, a criminal defense attorney, noting that those detained in Dilley face only civil immigration offenses.
The South Texas Family Residential Center, the nation’s sole facility permitted to hold families, has come under renewed scrutiny. While the Biden administration initially closed the 2,400-bed facility, it was reopened by the Trump administration last year, and its population has surged as interior arrests of families have increased.
The situation at the Dilley center is further complicated by reports of unrest. Dozens of detained families protested over the weekend, chanting “Libertad,” or “Let us go,” according to Eric Lee, a Michigan immigration attorney representing a family held at the facility. Lee stated that his clients’ teenage daughter was separated from her family after speaking out about the poor conditions. In a letter shared by the attorney, the teen wrote, “no family should ever be separated or have to stay detained for months … we don’t even know if or when we will get out.”
Department of Homeland Security officials reportedly placed the facility on lockdown during Castro and Crockett’s visit, allegedly denying children access to medical appointments. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, disputed this claim, stating that ICE would “NEVER deny any illegal alien medical care.” However, she acknowledged that “these types of smears are leading to our officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”
Outside the facility, hundreds of advocates and residents marched, demanding the release of all detainees. Witnesses reported that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers deployed tear gas against protesters and members of the media. According to DPS spokesperson Sheridan Nolen, troopers responded at the request of Dilley officials and used “pepper ball grenades and pepper ball projectiles” after protesters refused to disperse and allegedly “spit on officers.” Two individuals were arrested on charges of resisting arrest and interfering with public duties, and at least one woman required medical attention.
Attorneys and advocates have long raised concerns about conditions at the Dilley center, but they report a recent deterioration. “Children as young as newborns are being confined for weeks and months on end, often with no explanation beyond bureaucratic shorthand,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First.
The legal framework governing the detention of children, known as Flores, generally prohibits detaining children with their parents for longer than 20 days. However, the Trump administration is actively attempting to dismantle this agreement in federal court and is widely accused of violating its guidelines. “We have found no evidence that ICE is even reviewing the length of detention for children to ensure compliance with their rights under the Flores Settlement Agreement,” Barnard stated. Her organization represents a pregnant woman detained at the facility for four months despite a strong asylum claim.
Since March, Barnard said the administration has detained families from countries including Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, and Haiti, many of whom had been patiently awaiting their asylum hearings. Families are reportedly facing poor living conditions, including inadequate access to clean water, food, and hygiene products, and are forced to endure constant illumination. There are concerns that the administration intends to send some families to Mexico under the reinstated Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as “Remain in Mexico.”
The increased enforcement efforts have coincided with a record number of deaths in immigration detention. One in four ICE arrests since Trump’s second inauguration through July 2025 occurred in Texas, which also has the highest concentration of immigration detention facilities. In the past two months, four deaths have been reported in Texas facilities, including a 55-year-old Cuban man whose death was ruled a homicide.
Michelle Brane, a former immigrant detention ombudsman under the Biden administration, emphasized that “every family detention facility that any administration has tried to set up has been found to be inhumane, inappropriate for children, ineffective, incredibly costly, and in the end, has been closed.” She added that the Trump administration’s return to family detention is a reversal of established consensus.
The scrutiny surrounding Dilley follows a violent month in Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, during immigration enforcement operations. The Trump administration removed the head Border Patrol agent following Pretti’s death and replaced him with Tom Homan, a former ICE chief.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on expanded funding for DHS, and the recent events in Minnesota have prompted some senators to reconsider their support. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul urged an investigation into Pretti’s killing, stating, “I am troubled by the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, Castro, Crockett, and other officials called on Senate Democrats to reject the DHS funding request. “We have the power of the purse, not the president,” Crockett declared. “It is time for us to flex our power.” They also urged Congress to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, positioning Liam’s case as emblematic of ICE’s alleged cruelty and racist practices. A lone protester briefly interrupted the proceedings, shouting, “We don’t care about illegal aliens. We only care about Americans.”
The speakers also noted that the administration has mistakenly arrested dozens of U.S. citizens. “Donald Trump ran for the presidency saying he was going to go after ‘the worst of the worst.’ Today he is holding a 5-year-old in a prison,” said U.S. Rep. Greg Casar. “Imagine that that’s your child, your little boy or little girl. That should break the heart of every American. This does not make anyone safer and it makes us all less free.”
