(DILLEY, TEXAS) — A federal judge on Monday, January 26, 2026, temporarily blocked the possible deportation or transfer of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, from a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
The emergency order pauses any imminent removal or transfer while litigation and immigration proceedings continue, leaving the father and son in place for now at the Dilley facility.
Liam and his father, both Ecuadorian nationals, are held together at Dilley, ICE’s only long-term family detention center, in dorm-like family units.
The case reached federal court after the pair filed a lawsuit while their immigration court matters remained pending in the Dilley immigration court, including a pending asylum claim that prevents immediate removal until an immigration judge adjudicates it.
Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias and Liam entered the U.S. illegally in December 2024, and their immigration court cases were filed on December 17, 2024.
A pending asylum claim does not resolve the immigration case by itself, but it can block immediate removal while the immigration judge considers the request for protection.
The temporary block on deportation does not decide the asylum claim or end the immigration court case. It holds the status quo as the legal challenges proceed on separate tracks in federal court and immigration court.
The legal and political attention focused on Liam after ICE agents arrested his father outside their Columbia Heights, Minnesota, home and detained the boy with him, setting off a dispute over what happened during the arrest and how the child was treated.
ICE offered one account of the arrest. Neighbors, school officials and the family’s attorney offered another.
Marcos Charles, acting executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations at ICE, and Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said ICE agents arrested Conejo Arias after he allegedly fled on foot, leaving Liam in a running vehicle during winter.
Charles and McLaughlin said officers then provided food and kept the child with him per the father’s wishes.
“abject lie.”
McLaughlin rejected the allegation that agents used the boy to draw out his mother, calling claims of using the child as “bait” an “abject lie.”
Neighbors and school officials disputed the federal account. They said the child’s welfare became part of the arrest strategy and that adults on scene offered alternatives to keeping him in custody with his father.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said agents instructed Liam, wearing a Spiderman backpack, to knock on the door as “bait” for his mother inside.
“bait”
Stenvik said adults offered to take responsibility for the boy, including Mary Granlund, the school board chair, and a neighbor with authorization papers, but agents refused those offers.
Marc Prokosch, the family’s attorney, also disputed ICE’s description of events, aligning with neighbors and school officials who said the boy’s role at the door became central to the arrest.
The competing narratives turned the arrest into a national flashpoint, amplified by social media circulation of Liam’s photo and in-person protests.
The case drew local action in Minnesota, including a Twin Cities business strike on January 23, 2026.
Supporters framed the arrest and detention as an example of aggressive enforcement affecting families with young children, while ICE and Trump administration officials defended the agency’s approach as a child-welfare decision rather than a tactic to pressure family members inside the home.
The dispute also unfolded against the backdrop of a July 2025 Trump “Detained Parents Directive” cited in public debate about detained parents and child care.
The directive allows parents to arrange child care but does not specify outcomes when parents request to keep children with them, an issue that surfaced in the public debate over whether Liam should have been separated from his father after the arrest or released to adults offering care.
Trump officials weighed in publicly. Stephen Miller and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino defended ICE’s actions as prioritizing child welfare over media narratives.
Those statements landed as protesters and local officials scrutinized the agency’s decision-making and demanded accountability, with the child’s age and the image of his Spiderman backpack sharpening the public response.
Inside the Dilley facility, advocates and ICE described sharply different conditions for families held in long-term detention.
Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at Children’s Rights, reported last week that children are malnourished and ill, with nearly every child sick, and that significant numbers of children have been detained over 100 days.
Charles countered that families receive medical care, good food, learning, church, and recreation services.
The judge’s order did not move Liam or his father out of Dilley, but it immediately changed the government’s ability to carry out deportation or transfer while the case remains active.
In practical terms, the temporary block stops a near-term deportation or relocation that could have separated the family from counsel and ongoing court proceedings, at least until the next steps in federal court.
The immigration court case also continues. The pending asylum claim remains unadjudicated, and the immigration judge retains authority over that protection request unless a separate court action pauses or reshapes the schedule.
The federal lawsuit adds another forum where lawyers can challenge actions related to detention, transfer, or deportation while the immigration case proceeds.
Temporary relief in federal court can be short-lived without further court action, and the order’s force depends on what the judge does next after hearing more from the parties.
For now, Liam remains with his father in Dilley as the legal fight continues and as the government and the family dispute what happened at the arrest scene in Minnesota and what responsibilities officials owed the child in that moment.
The case has become a proxy battle over how enforcement agencies handle parents and children during arrests, especially when a pending asylum claim keeps a family from immediate removal but does not end the risk of deportation once a judge rules.
It also has placed Dilley back in the spotlight as the site of long-term family detention, with advocates pointing to illness, nutrition concerns, and prolonged confinement, and ICE pointing to services and care.
The federal judge’s temporary block leaves the central questions unresolved: whether the family’s court filings will lead to longer protection from deportation, how the immigration judge will rule on the asylum claim, and which account of the arrest the public and the courts ultimately credit.
McLaughlin’s dismissal of the “bait” allegation as an “abject lie” stands in stark contrast to Stenvik’s statement that agents told the boy to knock as “bait,” a split that has fueled the case’s intensity and helped drive protests well beyond Minnesota.
Federal Judge Blocks Deportation from Dilley Texas Pending Asylum Claim
A federal judge has temporarily halted the deportation of a five-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father from a Texas detention center. The case gained national attention following allegations that ICE agents used the child as bait during an arrest in Minnesota. While government officials defend their actions as welfare-focused, local witnesses and school board members dispute the official narrative, highlighting a growing conflict over immigration enforcement tactics.
