A 5-year-old boy arrested this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis could be held in a San Antonio-area detention facility, Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said Thursday afternoon in a social media post.
“We don’t know that he’s there, but we suspect that they’re sending him there,” Castro, whose district includes San Antonio, said in a video clip on his Instagram account.
“And so this morning my staff and I have been trying to figure out his whereabouts, make sure he’s safe, and also to demand his release by ICE.”
An image of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos went viral after eyewitnesses said ICE used the child “as bait,” having him knock on the door of his house to lure his parents out. The boy’s father reportedly ended up joining him in agents’ custody so his son wouldn’t be detained alone.
After pulling the child from a running car, an agent “led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in, in order to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the school district in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, told CNN.
“According to a source familiar with Tuesday’s situation, the father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, and his young son are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, an ICE facility for families,” CNN further reports.
The Dilley detention facility is located roughly an hour southwest of the Alamo City.
Castro, who serves on leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said he tried to reach out to ICE about the boy but got no response.
“ICE and the other agencies under Donald Trump have gotten super secretive,” the congressman added in his video. “This is the least transparent that an administration has been in generations at least.”
However, ICE did respond to public outcry over reports that its agents used the 5-year-old to lure out his parents.
“ICE did not, and has never, ‘used a child as bait.’ The child was ABANDONED,” the agency tweeted Thursday.
In a statement to CNN, DHS said ICE was conducting an operation to arrest the child’s father when he “fled on foot — abandoning his child.”
The Department of Homeland Security said the father, who’s from Ecuador, was the intended target of the operation.
The Ramos family presented itself to border officers in Texas in December 2024 to apply for asylum, their attorney, Mark Prokosch, said at a news conference.
“They have done every single thing the right way that they were supposed to …” Prokosch told reporters. “The family is pursuing an asylum claim, which is lawful to do. It’s just that now we have to do it with half of the family in Texas.”
Castro also said he submitted a request Wednesday to tour the Dilley facility before news broke of Ramos’ arrest and detention. However, members of congress who request an ICE detention site tour have to wait seven days for a visit, the congressman added.
That means Castro won’t be able to enter the facility until next Wednesday, he explained.
Meanwhile, the congressman added that he’s in communication with the Ramos family’s lawyers and family members.
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