A federal judge has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to a ruling obtained by CNN.
Liam and his father, Adrian, were taken by immigration agents from his snowy suburban Minneapolis driveway and sent 1,300 miles to a Texas detention facility designed to detain families.
The order specifies the preschooler and his father be released “as soon as practicable” and no later than Tuesday as their immigration case proceeds through the court system.
Liam’s case, Biery wrote, originated in “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”.
Biery also took aim at administrative warrants, which federal immigration agents often use to make arrests and which do not require a judge’s signature.
Liam is the fourth child from his school district to be taken away by immigration agents over a two-week period, Columbia Heights Public Schools said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Liam Conejo Ramos’ name. »