A five-year-old boy being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has fallen ill while in custody at a Texas family detention center, according to his family, school officials and members of Congress who have visited the facility.
The child, identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, was detained with his father on Jan. 20 in Minnesota and later transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Relatives and educators say Liam has experienced stomach pain, vomiting, fever and a loss of appetite since arriving at the facility.
“He’s not doing great,” his mother said through advocates, citing poor-quality food and stressful conditions at the facility as contributing factors. Officials from Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam is a preschool student, said the child has appeared lethargic and depressed during limited contact, reluctant to eat and unusually withdrawn for his age.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, who visited the Dilley facility this week, said Liam slept through much of his visit and appeared emotionally detached. “For a child that young, that kind of shutdown is alarming,” Castro said, adding that the boy’s condition raises broader concerns about the impact of detention on children.
Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are originally from Ecuador and entered the United States in 2024 seeking asylum, according to their attorney. The lawyer and school officials say the family has an active asylum case and no final deportation order. ICE has described the arrest as a targeted enforcement action and has suggested the father abandoned the child while attempting to flee—an account disputed by the family’s attorney and local officials.
Photos and videos of the arrest, which occurred in the family’s driveway shortly after Liam returned from preschool, circulated widely online and intensified public reaction. School administrators said agents instructed the child to knock on the door of the home to check for other occupants, an allegation ICE has not publicly addressed in detail.
Legal proceedings have temporarily halted any effort to deport or transfer the father and son. On Jan. 27, a federal judge in Texas issued a temporary order barring ICE from removing them from custody while a habeas challenge to their detention proceeds, keeping the family within the court’s jurisdiction.
The case has sparked demonstrations in Minnesota and outside the Dilley facility, and has become a flashpoint in a national debate over family detention and aggressive enforcement tactics under the Trump administration’s renewed immigration push. Civil-rights and child-welfare advocates argue that Liam’s condition illustrates the psychological and physical toll detention can take on very young children.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not released detailed medical information about Liam’s health. The agency has previously defended family-detention operations as necessary to ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and has said it provides medical care to those in custody.
As of late January, Liam remained at the Dilley facility with his father, his deportation temporarily blocked as the court case continues and advocates press for the family’s release.
