A young boy, just five years old, has reportedly fallen ill and is experiencing depression following his detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during raids in Minneapolis.

Liam Conejo Ramos was taken into custody directly from his driveway as he returned home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, last week.

A photograph of Liam, dressed in a blue winter hat and sporting a Spider-Man backpack at the time of his detention, has sparked significant outcry and criticism of the Trump administration’s stringent immigration policies.

Now, both Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center located in Dilley, near San Antonio. This facility has previously faced legal accusations of violating the civil rights of detained migrants.

Liam’s mother, Erika Ramos, expressed her concerns about the conditions within the detention center, describing them as ‘deeply concerning.’

“Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality,” she shared with Minnesota Public Radio, highlighting the dire circumstances her son is facing.

‘He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.’ 

Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, both of Texas, have since visited the father and son inside the facility and saw firsthand what they were going through.

Liam Conejo Ramos, five, was apprehended from his driveway by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as he returned home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota last week

Democratic Texas Representative Joaquin Castro visited Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas – and claimed Ramos slept through the entire half-hour long meeting

During the entire half-hour long meeting on Wednesday, Castro said Liam slept in his father’s arms and did not wake up.

Castro stressed in a video message on X that Liam’s condition wasn’t an ’emergency,’ but shared: ‘His dad said that he hasn’t been himself, he’s been sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad.’

Castro also claimed that the little boy has been asking about his mom and his classmates, and said he wants to return to school.

‘I would ask President Trump, who himself has grandkids who are of the age of some of the kids we met with today, to think of what it would be like for his grandkids to be behind bars,’ the Democrat said at a news conference as he called for Ramos and other detainees to be released.

Castro also posted a photo on social media of the meeting, showing Liam in his father’s arms with his eyes closed.

‘I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him,’ he captioned the photo.

Meanwhile, Crockett, who is seeking her party’s nomination for US Senate, said that Liam was one of many children that she and Castro met at the facility.

She claimed that the children were not getting an education inside the detention center, and said lawmakers were told that detainees could not be there if they had a criminal record.  

‘We are supposed to be better than this,’ she said.

Castro claimed that the little boy has been asking about his mom and his classmates, and said he wants to return to school

School officials accused federal immigration officers of using the preschooler as ‘bait’ by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer

Ramos’s arrest last week sparked outrage as school officials accused federal immigration officers used the preschooler as ‘bait’ by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer.

But Department of Homeland Security officials have called that description of events an ‘abject lie,’ claiming instead that the boy’s father fled on foot as agents approached ‘abandoning his child’ in a running vehicle in their driveway. 

‘For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,’ the agency wrote on X.

‘Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with the past administration’s immigration enforcement.’

The agency later claimed Arias, who is from Ecuador and allegedly entered the country illegally in December 2024, told agents he wants the boy to stay with him. 

The family’s attorney, Marc Prokosich, however, has claimed that the family entered the country legally at a border crossing in Brownsville, Texas.

He said the family is now seeking asylum and has been following the law throughout the process. 

As the family now challenges their detention in court, a federal judge on Monday issued a temporary order prohibiting the Trump administration from deporting Ramos and Arias. 

Ramos’s arrest last week sparked outrage nationwide. Protesters are seen gathering outside the South Texas Family Residential Center where Ramos is being held on Wednesday

Protesters have been showing up in mass at the facility to demand the boy’s release

As protesters moved closer to the facility on Wednesday, Texas state police officers arrived on a school bus and shouted instructions for the crowd to move back

In the meantime, protesters have been showing up in mass to the Texas detention center to demand the boy’s release as attorney Eric Lee, who represents other families detained there, says the conditions are ‘absolutely abysmal.’

‘They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,’ he told Minnesota Public Radio on Monday.

‘One of my clients had appendicitis, collapsed in the hallway, was vomiting from pain, and the officials told him “Take a Tylenol and come back in three days,”‘ Lee alleged. 

By Wednesday, Texas state police said they deployed chemical irritants toward the protesters who were seen banging drums, chanting and carried signs that included ‘Children are not criminals!’ 

As protesters moved closer to the facility, Texas state police officers arrived on a school bus and shouted instructions for the crowd to move back. Some officers then deployed pepper balls, dispersing the crowd.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement that officers arrested two people and used pepper balls after the protesters refused orders to disperse, adding that demonstrators also breached a protest area and spit on officers.

Columbia Heights Public School District Superintendent Zena Stenvik claimed that several students have been detained by ICE in recent weeks

But Ramos is just one of four children apprehended by ICE officers in the Columbia Heights Public School District in recent weeks, 

In one instance, Stenvik claimed a 10-year-old girl was apprehended with her mother while on her way to class.

‘During the arrest, the child called her father on the phone to tell him that ICE agents were bringing her to school. The father immediately came to the school to find that both his daughter and wife had been taken,’ Stenvik said.

‘By the end of the school day, they were already in a detention center in Texas, and they are still there.’

Stenvik also said that a 17-year-old student was detained when ‘ICE agents pushed their way into an apartment’.

‘ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our children,’ Stenvik said.

‘The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.