In this photo released by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-TX, Adrian Conejo Arias and his son, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos are seen in San Antonio, Texas, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, after being released from Dilley detention center. (Joaquin Castro via AP)
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. (CBS Minnesota) – A federal judge has denied the asylum claim for the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Minnesota boy whose arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in January gained national attention.
According to a statement from Columbia Heights Public School District, where Ramos attends school, an immigration judge “ended the asylum claims of the family of Liam Conejo Ramos,” describing it as a “heartbreaking” development.
“We understand that this decision will be appealed and remain hopeful for a positive outcome. Our thoughts are with Liam and his family, and we will continue to advocate for and support Liam and all children,” the school district said.
An attorney for the family said they plan to appeal the judge’s decision.
“So, first of all, the decision was not issued today. Today is the day we provided the information to the public,” said Paschal Nwokocha an immigration lawyer working with the Ramos family. “A few weeks ago, an immigration judge based in New York issued a decision to terminate their asylum application and order them removed from the United States. And since that decision was issued, we had to file an appeal to an office called the Board of Immigration Appeals, who submitted that appeal, and it is pending before the board. So while the case is pending before the board, the family can remain in the United States until that appeal is adjudicated.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it will take for the BIA to make a decision on these cases, but what we know is that the appeal is filed, and we intend to vigorously defend the rights for the family to actually get to the merits of their case, said Nwokocha. “As it is, the challenge we have is that they have not had a chance to actually tell their story to an immigration judge. The judge terminated it without the benefit of them presenting the merits of their case, to the court.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, left, visits with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. (Rep. Joaquin Castro via AP)
Ramos made headlines when he was taken from Columbia Heights, Minnesota, with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos, in January during Operation Metro Surge.
On Jan. 20, according to the school district, Ramos was taken with his father while in their driveway after just arriving home from his preschool classroom. School officials alleged the child was used as bait to knock on the door and ask to be let in, letting officers see if anyone else was home.
Both were taken to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas after a federal judge temporarily barred federal immigration officials from deporting them.
At the time of their detention, then Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that Liam Ramos had been abandoned by his father and that officers tried to get the mother to take custody.
In February, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered government officials to release Ramos and Liam and return them home. Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro helped the pair return to Minneapolis.
In ordering the release of Liam and his father, Biery blasted the Trump administration, writing 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.”
Representatives for Liam and his father previously said the family is from Ecuador and that they entered the U.S. in 2024 under a now-defunct Biden-era system that allowed asylum-seekers to use a phone app to schedule an appointment to be processed at an official border entry. DHS, which oversees ICE, has said that it has no record of the family using that app, formerly known as CBP One.
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