A five-year-old boy and his father who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota have returned home, a congressman has said.

Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, announced on Sunday that Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias were released from Dilley detention center in Texas and had travelled back to Minneapolis.

Castro said: “Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.”

The detainment of the pair sparked protests outside the detention facility where they were being held, and led to a national outcry. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said: “ICE did NOT target or arrest a child.”

Their return home came after US District Judge Fred Biery granted an emergency request from the family’s lawyer, and ordered their release on Saturday.

The judge condemned their detention as driven by a “perfidious lust for unbridled power”.

“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children,” Biery wrote in his ruling.

Biery, an appointee of former US President Bill Clinton, said deportations through the US immigration system should occur in a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.

While the father and son were still in the Texas detention centre, Castro had written on social media that the young boy was not doing well being away from his family, classmates and home.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the pair entered the US illegally, while a lawyer for the family said they followed proper protocols to seek asylum.

On Sunday, the DHS said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner CBS News: “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country”.

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and outspoken critic of ICE, also posted on social media about the father and son’s return to Minnesota.

“Liam is home now and we are grateful to [Joaquin Castro] for traveling to Minneapolis with him and his dad,” Omar wrote. “Welcome home Liam.”

There have been conflicting reports about what happened during the ICE operation where Ramos was first approached by ICE agents.

Officials at the school Ramos attended have said the boy had just arrived home from pre-school when an ICE agent asked the child to knock on the door of the home to see if anyone else was there.

A school official said another adult living in the home asked to take the young boy inside, but was refused.

School board member Mary Granlund said she was on the scene and told immigration officials she could take Ramos, but they still detained him.

In a post on X, ICE denied the child had been detained.

“A criminal illegal alien ABANDONED his child as he fled from ICE officers, and our officers ensured the child was kept SAFE in the bitter cold,” the agency said.

“ICE made multiple attempts to get the family inside the house to take custody of the child. They refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him,” the agency said.

US Vice-President JD Vance told reporters ICE had no choice because “the father ran”.

Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, said the father and son “did everything right” when they came into the country from Ecuador in 2024.

They entered the US at a port of entry to seek asylum, they used the CBP One app, they made an appointment, they presented themselves to Customs and Border Protection, and they have shared all their information with the government, Prokosch said.

“This family was not eluding ICE in any way. They were following all the established protocols pursuing their claim for asylum, showing up for their court hearings and pose no safety, no flight risk, and never should have been detained,” Prokosch added. (BBC, excluding headline)

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