Judge orders release of 5-year-old and dad taken into ICE custody
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A federal judge in Texas has ordered the release of an asylum seeker and his 5-year-old son, sharply criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
In an order Saturday, Judge Fred Biery said the government violated the Constitution by detaining the pair without proper judicial warrants, calling the practice “the fox guarding the henhouse.” The judge granted habeas relief, citing the Fourth Amendment and long-standing due process protections.
Attorneys representing the family told MPR News they are grateful to the court for acting swiftly to reach a decision. In a statement, the legal team said “we are now working closely with our clients and their family to ensure a safe and timely reunion. We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal.”
The decision comes as more than 100 protesters marched outside Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights on Saturday — the school where Liam Conejo Ramos and two of his classmates attended school in Minnesota before they were taken into custody by ICE with their parents this month.
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Lucas Moreault organized the protest. “All of a sudden we have a new regime coming in here and taking our children and taking our neighbors and taking our family members from our community and making it so that people are afraid to go to the store to get groceries or drive their kids to childcare or work to pay their rent,” said Moreault.
“So we’re out here as a community to let ICE know that they need to get out of here now and that they need to bring back our kids and bring back our community members now.”
Moreault said he had come to the site to protest on his own earlier this month. This time he created a Facebook event and hundreds showed up to join him.
— Elizabeth Shockman, MPR News staff
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