NEWS
The Trump administration is continuing its push to deport Liam Conejos Ramos, the 5-year-old boy whose detention became a defining image of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Here’s the latest.
The Trump administration is continuing its push to deport Liam Conejos Ramos, the 5-year-old boy whose detention became a defining image of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Liam and his family, who are from Ecuador, had a pending asylum application when he and his father were taken into custody on Jan. 20 during a sweep in Minneapolis and sent to a family detention center in Texas.
After images of Liam, wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by masked federal agents, spread worldwide, he and his father were released from detention. But the Department of Homeland Security pressed forward with its effort to expel the family from the United States.
Last month, the federal government moved to end the family’s asylum case without holding a hearing on the merits of their petition. The maneuver has been increasingly used by the Trump administration to quickly dismiss asylum cases.
An immigration court judge ruled for the government, and Liam’s family had 30 days to appeal. On Wednesday, the family’s lawyers asked the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is an arm of the Justice Department, to send the case back to the immigration court to hear the family’s asylum claim.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is unclear how quickly the case will be taken up by the board, which has been overhauled over the last year and is now made up mostly of Trump appointees.