Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were taken into ice custody in Minnesota, then transferred to the detention center in Dilley, Texas.
SAN ANTONIO — A contingent of Texas leaders gathered outside San Antonio City Hall to decry federal detention and immigration enforcement practices, with Congressman Joaquin Castro declaring, “I believe we should disband ICE.”
The Wednesday-afternoon gathering came as ripples of the national immigration debate spread from Minnesota to Texas, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos of Ecuador and his father are being held in a Dilley detention facility after being detained last week in Minnesota.
Castro said met with Liam and his father earlier in the day Wednesday for 30 minutes. The San Antonio Democrat said he was told by the boy’s father that “Liam has been very depressed” since being taken to Texas, and Castro added that he “seemed lethargic.” A photo shared by Castro’s office shows the boy lying in his father’s arms.
“I demand to ICE that they release him,” Castro said. “The sad tragedy is Liam is emblematic of the inhumanity of our detention system and ICE operations.”
Liam’s story caught public attention last week as an image of him being detained while wearing a bunny hate and Spider-Man backpack went viral. The Department of Homeland Security claims its agents tried to get Liam’s mother to take the boy, but she allegedly refused and “abandoned” him.
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Liam and his father will not be deported for the time being.
Their attorney has said the father is not an “illegal alien” and has been following the law in seeking asylum, a message that Castro repeated Wednesday in San Antonio as he began talking about the others he saw detained in Dilley, including a 2-month old baby he said had been there at least five days and others “who are mentally broken because of the trauma they’re experiencing.”
Protesters clash with law enforcement
Dozens of anti-ICE protesters gathered in Dilley earlier in the day to join Castro in demanding the release of Liam and his father, who are being held alongside other migrant families at a federal facility in the Texas community about 72 miles south of downtown San Antonio.
Demonstrators said they were standing in solidarity with the detained migrants and demanded their release as well. People came from all around South Texas, including San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos and elsewhere.
The demonstration started peacefully but turned chaotic when Texas state police deployed chemical irritants toward protesters as they moved closer to the facility. The law enforcement contingent arrived on a school bus and shouted instructions for the crowd to move back. Some of the officers then deployed pepper balls, dispersing the crowd.
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