Parents give heartbreaking update on five-year-old detained by ICE months after incident
Topics: US News
Greg Harris
Featured Image Credit: Columbia Heights Public Schools
Topics: US News
The parents of a five-year-old boy who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have said their son constantly worries about being detained again as they spoke out in their first-ever interview.
In January, Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were returning home from the child’s preschool when ICE agents detained them.
They spent nearly two weeks in a detention center in Texas and following a federal judge’s order for their release, they returned home to Minneapolis.
The detainment has had a lasting impact on Liam and the child’s family have spoken about how he is worried about being taken again. When asked what is most scary to him, Liam replied ‘la inmigracòn’, a Spanish term that refers to federal immigration agents.
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Speaking to CBS News, Liam’s mother Erika Ramos said: “My boy is very different.”
She added: “He sees police officers, and he says, ‘It’s ICE, Mommy.”
Liam’s father is concerned that it will take a long time for him to heal. “As parents, it worries us a lot that he’s no longer as he was before and we’re worried this could last a long time.”
UNILAD has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.
Footage of Liam being taken by ICE while wearing a Spiderman backpack and blue hat sparked outrage on social media and around the world.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was conducting a ‘targeted operation’ to arrest Liam’s father on January 20, and that he fled, abandoning his child. An ICE officer stayed with Liam ‘for the child’s safety’ while his father was arrested, the agency said.
However, Liam’s father disputes this, telling CBS News he 'never did and never would' abandon his son.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas previously said in an interview with PBS News: “Liam is not doing well. He has been sleeping a lot. He hasn't been eating well, and he's been very depressed. He misses his mom, he misses his classmates, and he wants to go home."
The Texas representative went on to say that conditions at the detention center in Texas were poor, with people held there saying they found 'worms occasionally in their food'.
The US federal government carried out a sustained ICE operation in Minnesota, where communities across the state organized in opposition to ICE.
Since the operation, ICE have shot dead mom-of-three Renee Nicole Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, both 37.