(Houston) A judge has temporarily blocked the expulsion from the United States of a 5-year-old boy arrested with his father last week in Minnesota and has since become one of the symbols of the methods denounced as brutal by the American immigration police.
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“Any expulsion or transfer” of the child and his father are prohibited as long as they contest their detention “and until further notice” of the courts, Judge Fred Biery, of the federal court in San Antonio, Texas, decided on Monday, where they are detained.
Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias, originally from Ecuador and presented as illegal immigrants, were arrested on January 20.
Their case sparked a wave of outrage after a photo showing the frightened boy, wearing a blue hat with bunny ears, carrying a backpack held by a figure dressed in black, went viral.
Read Rima Elkouri’s column: “The photo that kills”
There are two opposing versions concerning his treatment by the immigration police.
According to a representative of the school network that the child attended, he was used as “bait”, forced to knock on the door of his home to get the people there to leave.
Instead, federal authorities say he was picked up outside his home after his father fled.
Liam Conejo Ramos’ mother and older brother were not arrested at the same time as them.
In Minnesota, Donald Trump announced on Tuesday a “small de-escalation” after the arrival of his advisor Tom Homan, dispatched to defuse tensions around the anti-immigration operation which led to the death of two demonstrators, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, shot and killed by federal agents.
