The federal government may try to send 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos back to detention.
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday in federal court in Texas, challenging a January ruling that freed the 5-year-old Minnesota resident and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, from an immigration detention facility. The father and son were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a crackdown in the Minneapolis area earlier this year, drawing nationwide attention.
The filing, obtained by CBS News, takes the fight to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. If the government succeeds, the two could find themselves back in detention.
“The first time they came for us it was unjust. The second time they came for us is unjust. We are not giving into their fear,” Adrian Conejo Arias told CBS News through his attorney, Danielle Molliver. He also sent a message of gratitude to people around the world who have advocated on their behalf, saying, “Thank you to all those who continue to support and love us.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government is appealing a ruling by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who ordered the father and son released after finding their constitutional rights had been violated. Biery called their detention the product of a “perfidious lust for unbridled power” and said the case had its “genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
In addition to the release order, the government’s appeal extends to “all opinions, rulings, findings, conclusions, judgments, and orders on which the grant of the Petition is based.”
Conejo’s story — and the image of a 5-year-old standing outside his home wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spiderman backpack while surrounded by immigration agents — became a symbol of the harsh crackdown under Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
CBS News documented the impact of Conejo’s detention at his elementary school in a Minneapolis suburb, where 24 families had children or parents detained at the time. Valley View Elementary Principal Jason Kuhlman told CBS News he was worried about Conejo’s health while he remained in detention in late January.
“His friends notice that he’s not here. Then when it hit the media, they start seeing his face on TV,” Kuhlman said. “It’s like, how do you explain that? When you start missing someone out of your classroom. How do you have that conversation with a 5-year-old?”
A spokesperson for the Columbia Heights School District confirmed to CBS News that the 5-year-old was back in the classroom and his family wanted to make sure he wasn’t singled out over the rest of the students as he re-adapted.
Conejo’s case drew outrage after community members alleged ICE agents had used him as “bait” to have his mother open the door of their home after agents detained his father.
Then-DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to questions about the viral photo of Conejo in front of his home, saying his father “fled on foot—abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
The DHS statement added, “Our officers made multiple attempts to get the alleged mother who was inside the house to take custody of her child. Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken … into custody. The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.”
Airport surveillance video released in late March shows images of Conejo and his father being escorted by federal agents to a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Texas after their Jan. 20 detention.
In March, an immigration judge denied the family’s asylum claim, leaving them eligible for deportation. Their attorneys are appealing that decision, but the government’s appeal to their release challenges a narrow protection provided in Biery’s order, that if they were re-detained, they must receive a bond hearing.
