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.
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.