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Judge Fred Biery lambasts Trump’s ‘ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented’ mass deportation campaign
Alex Woodward & Bel TrewSunday 01 February 2026 00:07 GMT- Bookmark
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CloseLawmakers demand release of Liam Conejo Ramos
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A federal judge has ordered the release of a five-year-old boy and his father who were detained by federal immigration agents from their driveway in suburban Minneapolis and sent to a detention center in Texas.
In his ruling on Saturday, District Judge Fred Biery delivered a brutal assessment of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and an “ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas” that appears to require “traumatizing children.”
Liam Conejo Ramos was taken into federal custody from the driveway of his family’s home last week after officers arrested his father Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who is seeking asylum in the United States. They were sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas, where the preschooler is reportedly sick, lethargic and asking for his mother, according to his family and lawmakers who visited him this week.
The judge condemned the administration’s apparent “ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence” and Thomas Jefferson’s warnings against “a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation.”
He signed his three-page order with a now-viral image of Liam standing in his frozen driveway wearing a Spider-Man backpack and blue cap that has fueled outrage against the president’s anti-immigration agenda. Judge Biery also listed two Bible verses below it: Matthew 19:14 and John 11:35.
open image in galleryA federal judge has ordered the release of a 5-year-old boy and his father who were detained by federal officers in Minneapolis, an incident captured in a now-viral image emblematic of the Trump administration’s surge into the city (Columbia Heights Public Schools)The verse from Matthew states roughly that “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” while the verse from John is “Jesus wept.”
Judge Biery also delivered a “civics lesson” to the federal government as he quoted the Fourth Amendment and noted that “administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.”
“That is called the fox guarding the henhouse,” he wrote. “The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”
That constitutional safeguard “trumps” the government’s ongoing detention of the boy and his father, the judge wrote.
“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency,” he wrote. “And the rule of law be damned.”
While the family may decide through the “arcane” nature of the country’s immigration system to return to Ecuador, where they are from, “that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place,” he added.
He then referenced Benjamin Franklin’s response when asked what came out of the Constitutional Convention in 1787: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Judge Biery then signed the order “with a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,” with Liam’s photo and the two Bible verses beneath his signature.
The boy and his father must be released “as soon as practicable” but no later than February 3.
Officials must then file a status report no later than February 4 confirm their release from custody.
Liam’s image has become emblematic of sweeping arrests in Minneapolis, which has emerged as the latest backdrop to Trump’s mass deportation efforts and drawn several lawsuits and demonstrations across the country.
Federal courts in the state are swimming in cases alleging unlawful arrests and abusive and illegal use of force from immigrants and citizens alike swept up in the dragnet.
open image in galleryDemocratic Rep. Joaquin Castro visited with Liam and his father at an ICE detention center in Texas (Congressman Joaquin Castro/AFP)Days after Liam and his father were detained, a two-year-old girl and her father were brought into federal custody after immigration officers broke the man’s car window and arrested them on their way home from the grocery store, according to Minneapolis officials.
Chloe and Liam were among at least seven Minneapolis-area children detained by federal agents in recent days, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Colombia Heights public school district.
Speaking to The Independent, she welcomed the news of Liam’s release and thanked the community for the “outpouring of support for him.” But she warned that children in her district remain at risk, saying teachers and students feel “hunted.”
“We have had several ICE agents driving up and down, and around our schools, circling throughout the day over the last few weeks,” she continued.
“We have staff members stationed at arrival and dismissal times at every corner of every school, even a couple of blocks away as constitutionally-trained observers” to look after the children, she said.
“We feel hunted,” she said. “We feel under siege.”
open image in galleryProtesters outside the South Texas Family Residential Center demanded the release of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father January 28 (REUTERS)Jason Kuhlman, the principal of Liam’s school, told The Independent that two other students were detained by ICE on Thursday alone.
They now have a system where teachers walk children from at-risk communities to school, and are running ride-share programs to try to keep people safe because parents are too afraid to do the journey to school. Dozens of students are now learning online because they are too afraid to leave their homes.
“This is not political. This is about little humans wanting to come to school,” he said. “Education is being interfered with — kids can’t learn ... Racial profiling, terrorizing families and children, pulling Black and Brown people out of cars: I call it a snatch and grab.”
He added that when Liam is ready to return to his classroom, “everything is there waiting for him.”
The scenes mirrored arrests during other immigration enforcement operations around the country that have interrupted schools and put families, teachers and administrators on edge as they brace for officers showing up on campus and at home.
ICE official Marcos Charles said last week that officers were targeting Liam’s father during an arrest operation January 20.
Neighbors and school officials accused federal officers of using the boy as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer, which Homeland Security officials called an “abject lie.” Officials claim Liam’s father fled on foot and left the boy in a vehicle in their driveway.
The officers “abided by the father’s wishes to keep the child with him,” according to Homeland Security.
Homeland Security has also characterized Liam’s father as an “illegal alien,” though the family’s attorney Marc Prokosch told reporters this month that the family “came legally and are pursuing a legal pathway.”
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