A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the deportation of a 5-year-old boy and his father who were arrested in a Minneapolis suburb in an operation that further stirred the outrage over the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
The boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were arrested last week in Columbia Heights, Minn., shortly after the father had picked the boy up from school, according to school district officials. They were quickly taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio, where they remain.
In his order, Judge Fred Biery of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas told the federal government that it could not move the boy or his father out of his court’s jurisdiction while they challenged their detention.
The detention of the boy and his father by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents became a flashpoint in the Twin Cities, where anger has continued to grow over the surge of federal agents in the region. The image of Liam, wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a large winter hat as he was detained by federal agents, quickly became emblematic of the harsh effects of the government’s tactics in Minnesota.
Exactly what happened during the arrest remains in dispute.
Officials with the Columbia Heights Public School District, where Liam is a prekindergarten student, accused the federal government of using the boy as bait at his home to try to lure other family members out of the house. They said he was one of four students in the district who had recently been detained by the immigration authorities.
But Department of Homeland Security officials said that Mr. Conejo Arias had fled from agents, leaving Liam behind, and that Liam’s mother had “refused to accept custody” of him. They said Mr. Conejo Arias had told agents that he wanted Liam to remain with him. They also said that agents had not targeted or arrested the child, though they said he was being held with his father at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, maintained on Tuesday that Mr. Conejo Arias, who is from Ecuador, had entered the country illegally in December 2024.
A lawyer for the father and son disputed that in court documents, saying that the pair had entered legally at a border crossing in Brownsville, Texas. The lawyer, Jennifer Scarborough, said they had followed the government’s guidelines for asylum seekers and argued that the government had violated the rights of the father and his son by detaining them.
The order from Judge Biery, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, was brief and did not delve into the details of the case.
At a news conference at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Tuesday, school district officials and lawmakers decried the impact that immigration arrests were having on students. Of the four students arrested in Columbia Heights, two were detained on their way to school, said Mary Granlund, who chairs the Board of Education there. Another student was getting ready for school when there was a knock on the door from immigration agents, Ms. Granlund said.
Ms. Granlund and others said the district, which has about 3,400 students, was in a crisis, with students staying home from school, children crying in classrooms and teachers not being able to give answers.
“Children ask, ‘Can they take us?’ We don’t know what to tell them,” said Peg Nelson, a teacher in Columbia Heights. “Every day we wonder: How long is this sustainable?”
Sarah Mervosh contributed reporting from St. Paul, Minn., and Edgar Sandoval from San Antonio.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The Times on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice.
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