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

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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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. 

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. 

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"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. 

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