Father and Son Reunited: A Family’s Journey Home After Immigration Detention
A Joyful Return to Minneapolis
After a harrowing week of separation from their family, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, finally boarded a flight home to Minneapolis on Sunday, their faces reflecting a mixture of relief and exhaustion. The asylum seekers from Ecuador had been detained by federal immigration agents and held at a Texas detention facility before a federal judge intervened, ordering their immediate release. As their plane lifted off from San Antonio, Adrian shared his overwhelming emotions with ABC News correspondent John Quiñones in an exclusive interview, his voice filled with gratitude: “I’m happy to finally be going home.” For young Liam, the journey meant something even more precious—reuniting with his mother and brother after days of uncertainty and fear. When asked how he felt about returning home, the five-year-old simply responded “Good” in Spanish, his innocent answer belying the trauma of the previous week. Accompanying them on their journey home was Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat who had visited the detention center and advocated for their release, underscoring the political and humanitarian dimensions of their case.
The Detention That Sparked National Outrage
The ordeal began on January 20, an ordinary Monday that turned into a nightmare for the Conejo family. Adrian had just picked up his son from preschool and returned to their Minneapolis home, an everyday routine that thousands of parents perform without incident. According to Adrian’s account, they had parked their car in the driveway and were about to exit when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents emerged from their vehicles and detained them both. Within hours, the father and son found themselves transported hundreds of miles away to a federal detention facility in Dilley, Texas, separated from their family and thrust into an uncertain legal situation. What made their case particularly controversial was that they had a pending asylum case with no deportation order against them, raising serious questions about the propriety of their detention. School officials confirmed that Liam was taken into custody shortly after arriving home from preschool, with his father present in their driveway. The image of a kindergartener being detained after school struck a nerve across the nation, prompting widespread criticism of current immigration enforcement practices and igniting a debate about the humanity of arresting families with young children.
Conflicting Accounts and a Judge’s Scathing Rebuke
The circumstances surrounding the detention became a point of fierce contention between the family and the Department of Homeland Security. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement asserting that ICE had not targeted a child and that Adrian had fled on foot, abandoning his son—a claim the family vehemently denied. According to the government’s version, officers remained with Liam while others pursued his father, and they attempted to place the boy with his mother, who allegedly refused to accept custody. The spokesperson claimed that Adrian himself requested his son remain with him. However, this account sharply contradicted what Adrian, his attorney, and school officials reported. Adrian explained that he had only walked a few feet ahead of his son, attempting to alert others who might help them, emphatically stating, “I love my son too much. I would never abandon him.” School officials supported the family’s version, reporting that another adult from the household was outside begging agents to allow them to care for Liam, but their request was denied. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery didn’t mince words when he ordered the pair’s release on Saturday, requiring they be freed “as soon as practicable” but no later than February 3. In a stinging rebuke of the government’s actions, Judge Biery wrote that the case had “its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.” His order went further, observing that “for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency.”
Conditions Inside Detention and a Child’s Suffering
The week spent in the Texas detention facility proved to be a difficult experience for both father and son, particularly for young Liam. Adrian described the conditions as “not great,” a characterization that took on deeper meaning when he revealed that his son had fallen ill during their detention. When Adrian requested medication for his sick five-year-old, he was told by facility staff that none was available. The facility’s doctor reportedly stated she had no medication to provide them, leaving the father helpless to ease his child’s suffering. This denial of basic medical care to a kindergartener raised additional concerns about the treatment of families in immigration detention, particularly children who have special vulnerabilities and needs. The experience highlighted the broader issues with detaining young children in facilities designed primarily for adults, where appropriate pediatric care may not be readily available. For a five-year-old separated from his mother and brother, held in an unfamiliar place, and denied medication when sick, the week must have felt like an eternity. These conditions underscored Judge Biery’s criticism of the government’s approach, lending weight to his assertion that the pursuit of deportation quotas had resulted in traumatizing children without regard for their wellbeing or basic human decency.
A Family’s Flight from Fear and Hope for the Future
Behind the headlines and legal battles lies a family’s story of fleeing danger and seeking safety. Adrian explained to ABC News that he and his family left Ecuador out of genuine fear for their lives, the kind of fear that compels people to leave everything familiar behind and start over in a foreign land. “I asked for asylum to be here for my family, for my children,” Adrian said during the flight home. “I’m here because I’m scared of returning to my country.” His words reflected the reality faced by thousands of asylum seekers who come to the United States not as economic migrants seeking better wages, but as refugees fleeing threats that most Americans can scarcely imagine. Adrian emphasized that he and his family had entered the country “with all the requirements,” following proper legal procedures to request asylum. Their case was currently being processed through the immigration court system, with their first hearing scheduled for later in February. This detail is particularly significant because it demonstrates they were not evading authorities or living unlawfully, but rather engaging with the legal system and awaiting their day in court when their detention occurred. Even Judge Biery acknowledged in his order that the father and son might ultimately “return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation,” but stressed it should result “through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.”
A Plea for Justice and Compassion
As the plane carried Adrian and Liam back to Minneapolis, back to the mother and brother they had been separated from, Adrian shared a message he hoped would reach those in power. He appealed to the federal government to “not be so unfair with the Latino population,” highlighting what he sees as a pattern of unjust treatment. “Many times, it’s unjust that they arrest people who only come to this country to work hard and help their families get ahead,” he explained, his words capturing the frustration of countless immigrants who feel criminalized for seeking safety and opportunity. Adrian maintained that his own arrest was unjust, occurring while he was simply bringing his kindergartener home from preschool, posing no threat to public safety and complying with the legal asylum process. His case has become emblematic of larger questions about immigration enforcement priorities and methods: Should families with pending asylum cases and no deportation orders be subject to detention? Is it appropriate to detain young children, particularly when other family members are available to care for them? Are daily deportation quotas driving enforcement decisions in ways that compromise humanity and due process? As Adrian and Liam descended toward Minneapolis, they faced an uncertain future—their asylum case still pending, their legal battle potentially far from over—but for that moment, they were simply a father and son going home to the family that had anxiously awaited their return, their reunion a small victory for compassion in an increasingly contentious immigration landscape.
