US federal judge blocks deportation of five-year-old boy and his father

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be immediately deported, one week after their arrest sparked international outrage.

A Texas-based judge issued an order saying Liam Ramos, the preschooler, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, cannot be removed or transferred out of the judicial district where they are being held while the litigation challenging their detention proceeds.

Liam’s arrest seven days prior went viral and became a symbol of the Trump administration’s relentless crackdown on immigrant communities in the Minneapolis region. Attorneys for the family have said the father and son have an active asylum case and had entered the US at an authorized port of entry.

Officials at Liam’s school district spoke out about his arrest last week, saying the boy and his father were detained as they returned home from school. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the arrest, arguing that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was conducting a “targeted operation” to detain the boy’s father.