Federal judge orders immediate release of Liam Conejo Ramos, boy who was arrested along with his father by immigration agents

A federal judge in Texas ordered the immediate release of Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy who went viral when he was arrested by immigration authorities along with his father, Adrián Conejo Arias. In a highly critical ruling against the Trump administration, Judge Fred Biery condemned what he called "the imposition of cruelty."

Biery, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, ordered that the release of the two be immediate, no later than Tuesday, Feb. 3.

On Jan. 20, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted an operation to detain the child's father. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), because the mother refused to keep the child at that time, authorities took him with his father.

He was subsequently transferred with his father to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. An image captured of the boy with a Spiderman backpack generated a wave of criticism and protests against immigration authorities.

As noted from the boy's school, both he and his father have a pending asylum case, but no deportation order indicating they should be removed from the United States.

In the ruling, Biery stated that if the father and son are rearrested under federal immigration law, they should be granted appropriate court proceedings, including a bail hearing. Biery even signed his brief with the viral photo of the boy in his blue cap and Spiderman backpack.

In a separate opinion from the ruling, the judge asserted that the detention "has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."