\n<\/p>\n
The family of Liam Conejo Ramos, the preschooler whose detention sparked protests in January, has been denied asylum in the US by a federal immigration judge.<\/p>\n
Attorney Danielle Molliver told Minnesota Public Radio that the family is appealing the ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The decision is the latest step in the Trump administration\u2019s effort to deport the five-year-old child, whose photograph in a bunny hat in Minneapolis went viral after he and his father were detained by immigration officials in January.<\/p>\n
The family \u201cis very disappointed\u201d, Molliver told the Minnesota Star Tribune. \u201cThey were hopeful, at the minimum, they would get their day in court and have an audience and present their testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family, including Liam\u2019s 13-year-old brother and their parents, Adrian Conejo Arias and Erika Ramos, who is pregnant, faces an uncertain future as the Trump administration moves to expedite the removal of the child and his father. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has previously denied the claim that they are looking to fast-track the removal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdrian Alexander Conejo Arias and his son received full due process and were issued a final order of removal on February 19,\u201d DHS acting assistant secretary, Lauren Bis, said in a statement on Thursday. \u201cThese are regular removal proceedings. This is standard procedure and there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation\u2019s immigration laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the appeal filed, Molliver\u2019s office, Nwokocha & Operana, has until the end of April to submit any supporting documents and statements to the BIA. Molliver told the Minnesota Star Tribune that \u201cevery day is a struggle\u201d for the family, as how much time is left in the US or whether the children will be allowed to finish the school year remains unclear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all depends on how long the BIA takes,\u201d Molliver told the news outlet. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to go back to Ecuador.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molliver said she requested that the DHS consider \u201chumanitarian factors and due process\u201d in its enforcement of immigration law.<\/p>\n
Nwokocha & Operana did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that this decision will be appealed and remain hopeful for a positive outcome,\u201d a spokesperson for Columbia Heights public school district told ABC News. \u201cThe detention in January of Liam and his father shed light on the harm caused by Operation Metro Surge, during which many children and families have been detained.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy and his father were detained in Minneapolis during what became one of the Trump administration\u2019s largest immigration crackdown campaigns. Both were arrested shortly after arriving home from the child\u2019s preschool, and they were later taken to a federal detention facility in Dilley, Texas.<\/p>\n
In January, an analysis by the Guardian found that ICE booked about 3,800 minors into immigrant family detention from January to October 2025, including children as young as one or two years old.<\/p>\n
The sweeping operations in the Minneapolis-St Paul area and other Minnesota communities led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests, and the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The family of Liam Conejo Ramos, the preschooler whose detention sparked protests in January, has been denied asylum in the US by a federal immigration judge. Attorney Danielle Molliver told Minnesota Public Radio that the family is appealing the ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The decision is the latest step in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2917,3287,23913,2376,2906,2081,675,7181,23914],"class_list":{"0":"post-47145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-asylum","9":"tag-claim","10":"tag-conejo","11":"tag-denies","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-judge","15":"tag-liam","16":"tag-ramos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}