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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday released a photo of the father of a preschool child who authorities say was abandoned by his father while on the run from law enforcement.
Fox News obtained a photo of Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who is the father of 5-year-old Liam Ramos.
Conejo Arias is an Ecuadorean citizen who was in the United States illegally and was released from the country by the Biden administration.
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Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, the father of Liam Ramos, has been detained with his son in Texas after being arrested by federal immigration authorities. (Courtesy of Columbia Heights Public Schools / Department of Homeland Security)
DHS has no record of him or his family entering the US through the Biden CBP One mobile app as the family’s attorney claimed. Fox was told by the agency that Conejo Arias is a process known as VR, voluntary return, to leave the US without immigration consequences, but he refused.
Democrats say Ramos was “kidnapped” as his father was arrested in Minneapolis. Columbia Heights School District Superintendent Zena Stenvik said Ramos was “used as bait.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., along with other Democrats, shared a photo of a 5-year-old boy online and said he was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on his way home from preschool,
DHS officials say officers were approaching Conejo Arias when he ran away from his son.
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The media was quick to call out Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who shared a photo of a 5-year-old boy and said he was arrested by ICE on his way home from preschool. (Courtesy of Columbia Heights Public Schools)
“This little boy was abandoned by his father. His father was contacted by ICE when he ran, ran, abandoned the child,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Our law enforcement officers stay with the child in this cold weather, they try to lock him and his mother, but they did not lock the child, which is sad, horrible.”
On Friday, ICE officials said authorities were targeting the father, not the child.
“My officers stay with the child. They take care of him. They take him to the drive-thru restaurant and spend hours making sure he is taken care of,” ICE Executive Assistant Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Marcos Charles told the media. “Again, my police did that, not his father … his family refused to open the door and sent him back.”
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The Department of Homeland Security said the child who was reportedly detained by the Federal Immigration Agency in Minnesota this week was “abandoned” by his father, who is not targeted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Columbia Heights Public Schools)
“My police did everything possible to reunite him with his family,” he added. “It was sad that when we approached the door where he lived, the people inside refused to let him in and open it. I didn’t do it again, they saw the little boy and they refused to open it and came back with him.”
McLaughlin said police tried to get Liam’s mother to take him, but she refused to accept the child. The boy and his father are being held together at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, which houses families.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas., on Friday said she plans to visit the detention center next week to “direct and seek answers about Liam’s whereabouts and health.”
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“If it were up to me, we’d be in the Dilley Detention Center NOW getting answers,” he wrote on X. “But let’s be clear about what’s really going on here: The Trump administration has illegally blocked Members of Congress from exercising official oversight.
Crockett added that he was angry, saying his heart “goes out for Liam’s family” as he promised to get answers.
McLaughlin said Conejo Arias asked to live with Ramos after the child’s mother refused to take him. Before that, Ramos was given food at McDonald’s and listened to music, he said.
“Parents are asked if they want their children removed, or if ICE will place the children with a safe person of their choice,” McLaughlin said. “This is consistent with past immigration laws.”
