A girl from the same school district as Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Minneapolis boy whose ICE detention drew national outrage, has been released from Dilley’s South Texas Family Residential Center along with her mother, CBS News reports.
Fourth-grader Elizabeth Zuna was the first child from the Columbia Heights school district arrested during federal authorities’ Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, according to Minneapolis Public Radio.
She and her mother were in detention for a month in Dilley, located an hour southwest of San Antonio.
Luis Zuna, the child’s father, told nonprofit news organization Sahan Journal that the pair were released Tuesday evening and transported to a shelter. He added that he hopes they will return to Minnesota Wednesday, though school officials said the measles outbreak at the Dilley site might delay the girl’s return due to quarantine procedures, CBS reports.
A habeas corpus petition was filed for Elizabeth Zuna and her mother in federal court on Monday. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, the same San Antonio judge who freed Liam Ramos and his father last weekend in a fiery opinion, ordered that Zuna and her mother can’t be deported while their case proceeds.
Earlier Tuesday, school officials and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the girl’s release during a press conference at the state capitol.
Zuna and her mother were picked up by ICE Jan. 6 on their way to school, according to multiple media reports. School officials told Sahan Journal the child called her father to inform him that immigration agents would be taking her to campus after capturing her mother.
Her father reportedly rushed to Highland Elementary School to wait for her. He and school staff waited outside for her arrival for hours, MPR reports.
She never showed up.
Instead, Zuna and her mother were in Dilley by that afternoon, remaining there for a month and falling ill in the process, Sahan Journal reports.
“In my profession, I have seen many people break down in grief, but that image of Elizabeth’s father will stay with me forever,” school counselor Tracy Xiong told Sahan News. “I watched him sit in his car, bury his head in his hands, and cry uncontrollably. Those are images you do not forget.”
After Ramos’ release, still more students from Columbia Heights Public Schools remain in the Dilley facility, according to MPR. Six students in total have been taken from the school system. Two, including Liam Ramos, have returned home.
School officials said all three still in detention are being held in Dilley.
Though the Columbia Heights system hasn’t released the names of the youths still at the South Texas lockup, school officials told Sahan Journal they are a 17-year-old high school student and a pair of brothers in 2nd and 5th grades.
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Zuna’s mother, Rosa Elena Caisaguano Cajilema, was brought in on a final order of removal.
“Upon discovering a child was in the car, officers allowed her to make phone calls to place the child in the custody of someone she designated,” the DHS spokesperson said in the statement. “She failed to find a trusted adult to care for the child, so officers kept the family together for the welfare of the child.”
However, the statement doesn’t explain why agents didn’t bring the girl to her school and hand her over to her father’s care after she called him on the phone.
On Tuesday, Walz sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding that she provide the whereabouts of those arrested in Minnesota by federal agents and detained, particularly the children.
“Indeed, your administration has gone so far as to establish so-called ‘tender age’ shelters for babies and young children taken into federal custody,” the governor wrote. “And reports of a measles outbreak in your Dilley family detention facility add risks for children in your custody and threaten the health and safety of all Minnesotans when they return home.”
In the letter, Walz acknowledged that Liam Conejo Ramos benefitted from a viral photo showing him in a bunny hat and Spider Man backpack while being detained. The governor lamented the fate of other detained children who haven’t received the same media attention.
“We don’t know how many others are in the same situation that didn’t get a photo that went viral,” Walz said.
“No child should be incarcerated in America,” he said in closing the letter. “Send our kids home.”
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