The Trump administration is continuing its push to deport Liam Conejos Ramos, the 5-year-old boy whose detention became a defining image of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Liam and his family, who are from Ecuador, had a pending asylum application when he and his father were taken into custody on Jan. 20 during a sweep in Minneapolis and sent to a family detention center in Texas.
After images of Liam, wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by masked federal agents, spread worldwide, he and his father were released from detention. But the Department of Homeland Security pressed forward with its effort to expel the family from the United States.
Last month, the federal government moved to end the family’s asylum case without holding a hearing on the merits of their petition. The maneuver has been increasingly used by the Trump administration to quickly dismiss asylum cases.
An immigration court judge ruled for the government, and Liam’s family had 30 days to appeal. On Wednesday, the family’s lawyers asked the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is an arm of the Justice Department, to send the case back to the immigration court to hear the family’s asylum claim.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is unclear how quickly the case will be taken up by the board, which has been overhauled over the last year and is now made up mostly of Trump appointees.
But the government’s efforts to throw out the family’s asylum claim make clear that despite the widespread criticism that followed Liam’s detention, the Trump administration wants to keep the pressure on immigrants vulnerable to deportation. If the appeal is denied, Liam and his family could be deported to Ecuador.
Paschal Nwokocha, one of the family’s lawyers, said the government should give Liam and his family the chance to plead their case for asylum instead of trying to swiftly deport them. “Considering all this family has gone through, the trauma and public reaction, it’s unbelievable that the government is continuing to traumatize them,” said Mr. Nwokocha, whose Minneapolis firm, Nwokocha & Operana Law Offices, is representing the family.
“The family remains in shock as to why the government is in a haste to deport them without giving them their day in court,” said Mr. Nwokocha.
The family includes Liam’s 13-year-old brother and his parents, Adrian Conejo Arias and Erika Ramos, who is pregnant.
Following the arrest, Liam and his father were sent to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. They returned to Minnesota on Feb. 1, after a federal judge ordered their release, describing the enforcement operation in the Twin Cities as an “ill-conceived and incompetently implemented” pursuit of deportation quotas.
The family’s lawyers have said that Liam and his family entered the United States legally in December 2024 as asylum seekers, and had an active case pending, allowing them to remain in the United States.
However, a policy expanded by the Trump administration in January last year broadened the use of a tool called “expedited removal” to fast-track immigration cases for people in the United States less than two years. Previously, expedited removal had been applied to people who were detained within 100 miles of the border shortly after entering the country.
Because Liam’s family arrived less than two years ago, they became vulnerable to expedited removal. They were also subjected to a legal strategy increasingly used by the Trump administration to speed up deportations: Government lawyers requested that an immigration judge dismiss the family’s asylum application outright, without a full evidentiary hearing.
“This family has not violated any laws of the United States,” said Mr. Nwokocha.
Their case should not be rushed, he said, noting that they do not represent “the worst of the worst” — the hardened criminals that the Trump administration has said it is targeting.
In a statement, Liam’s school district called the announcement “heartbreaking.” The school district, in Columbia Heights, Minn., has had several parents and students detained. “Our thoughts are with Liam and his family, and we will continue to advocate for and support Liam and all children,” it said.
Sarah Mervoshcontributed reporting.
Miriam Jordan reports from a grass roots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States.
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