Lawyers for Ecuadorian asylum seekers have speculated that the Trump administration is seeking “retaliatory” action.
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Published February 6, 2026
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it will continue to seek the deportation of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias, who recently returned to Minnesota.
However, authorities denied seeking their swift departure, as claimed by the family’s lawyer.
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“These are routine removal procedures,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Friday. “This is standard procedure and there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.”
Conejo Ramos’ case has received national attention since he was first taken into custody on January 20th.
A photo of Conejo Ramos standing in the snow wearing floppy blue bunny ears and an immigration officer clutching a Spider-Man backpack went viral.
Officials with the Columbia Heights Public School District in Minnesota accused immigration authorities of using a preschooler as a “bait” for his father. Meanwhile, DHS claimed that the father abandoned the child after being approached by immigration authorities.
Both sides denied the other’s account of the January 20 arrest.
Since December, President Donald Trump’s administration has led an immigration crackdown in Minnesota known as Operation Metro Surge. At the height of the operation, as many as 3,000 agents were sent to the state.
But bystander videos and photos have raised questions about heavy-handed tactics, particularly in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.
There, two Americans were shot and killed by immigration officers in the last month alone. Renee Nicole Good on January 7th and Alex Preti on January 24th.
This week, the Trump administration announced the withdrawal of nearly 700 immigration agents after an outcry over fatal shootings and other reports of bystander violence and warrantless arrests.
The detention of Conejo Ramos and his father was one of the high-profile flashpoints during the crackdown.
A 5-year-old boy and his father were arrested on their way home from kindergarten. They were quickly deported from Minnesota to Dilley, Texas, where they were kept at an immigration processing center while Trump officials sought their expulsion.
But on January 27, Judge Fred Bailly ruled that the pair should be released while they contest their expulsion.
“All they want is a modicum of due process and the rule of law,” Billy wrote in his short but poignant decision.
Conejo Ramos and his father arrived in the United States from Ecuador. Their lawyers said they entered the country legally and were in the midst of asylum proceedings at the time of their detention.
Attorney Daniel Moliver told Minnesota Public Radio this week that DHS filed documents urging the father and son to be deported, speculating that the action may have been “retaliation.”
“As lawyers, it’s really frustrating because they keep throwing new obstacles in front of us,” she told the public broadcaster. “There’s absolutely no reason to rush this.”
