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Topics: US News, News, Parenting, World News
Madison Burgess
Topics: US News, News, Parenting, World News
A US federal immigration judge has denied Liam Ramos and his family asylum, their lawyer has confirmed.
The five-year-old made headlines in January when he was detained by a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as he returned home from school.
Liam was making his way up his driveway in Minnesota when a group of agents approached, attempting to apprehend his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.
At the time, Superintendent of Liam's school district, Zena Stenvik, told the press that the father and son had been transported to South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, having been accused of living in the United States illegally.
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Stenvik accused the ICE agents of 'essentially using a five-year-old as bait', 'in order to see if anyone else was home'.
After the story and a photo of the child wearing a bunny hat and a Spiderman backpack went viral, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a response.
They claimed in a statement that ICE 'did not target a child', and instead insisted that Liam had been 'abandoned' by his father, an alleged 'illegal alien'.
Liam and his dad, who is from Ecuador, were held in custody for 10 days in the Texas detention center before a judge ordered them released.
It was confirmed on 1 February, and his dad were both safely home, after US District Judge Fred Biery granted an emergency request from the family's lawyer.
Now, though, their asylum claim has been rejected, and the family has been ordered to be deported to Ecuador, as reported by The Independent.
Attorney Danielle Molliver told Minnesota Public Radio that they're appealing the 'disappointing' ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
The publication reports that the family not only includes Liam and his dad, but also Liam's 13-year-old brother, and his mum Erika Ramos, who is pregnant with the couple’s third child.
As reported by The Independent, Molliver said: "We’re just gravely disappointed in the judge’s misguided decision. We’re committed to the family, and we’ll fight the appeal, obviously, the best that we can."
Because an appeal could take years to make its way through the courts, Molliver is pushing the government to push for a quicker result.
“At minimum, I would hope we have a couple months," she told the publication.
The lawyer confirmed that Liam is back in school, but he and his dad have been badly shaken by their time in detention, and are 'scared' about what could happen next.
As reported by The Guardian, DHS acting assistant secretary, Lauren Bis, said in a statement on Thursday (19 March): “Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias and his son received full due process and were issued a final order of removal on February 19.
"These are regular removal proceedings. This is standard procedure, and there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.”
Meanwhile, another of the family's attorneys, Paschal Nwokocha, told PEOPLE: "All of us have literally watched the young boy and his family being thrust in the limelight, and for what they have gone through, we are really, really begging and asking for those who have powers in this country to be sympathetic.
"We know we need to enforce immigration laws of this country, but this is a family that entered the US legally. They didn't run or jump the border. They came into the country legally. They have obeyed all the laws as it applies to them, and the government seems to be in a rush to get them out, and we still don't understand why."
He added, "They should have mercy. They should be compassionate and consider the humane qualities that this family has had to endure."