The Fight Was Worth It – Liam Is Free – Judge Fred Biery Draws the Line Where a Child Sits in a Cage

Federal Judge Fred Biery has ruled that five year old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias must leave a Texas immigration detention facility no later than Tuesday. We have written about the case repeatedly and have also been actively involved in advocating for them. The two were detained by immigration officers in Minnesota at the end of January and were then transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. They were held there even though there are no allegations whatsoever against the child himself and his father is in the middle of an ongoing asylum proceeding.

The order was won before Federal Judge Fred Biery, who set limits for the government in unusually clear language. The court not only prohibited a deportation or transfer of the two, but explicitly ordered that their release must take place in a public setting. The asylum case continues, but the detention of a child is thus ended for now. We will document the release ourselves. Biery sharply criticized the government’s deportation policy and found that imprisoning families with small children is not only a severe human burden but also constitutionally highly problematic. State power finds its limit where a child, through no fault of his own, is deprived of his liberty. Detention must not be used as an administrative pressure tactic.

The case has drawn broad attention also because of an image that has become ingrained. It shows Liam wearing a colorful hat resembling bunny ears and a Spider Man backpack, being held by ICE officers. A child dressed as if for the walk to school, surrounded by uniforms. The image was widely shared not because of sensation, but because of its quiet brutality. It is precisely this normality that makes the situation so disturbing. A five year old from Minnesota, transferred to a detention center thousands of miles away, separated from his environment, locked up as part of a political enforcement strategy. With his decision, Judge Fred Biery set a clear boundary to this approach. The release of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father is not a conclusion. It shows that courts still intervene when state action loses all sense of proportionality. For a child, this decision means above all one thing: out of detention. Everything else comes after.