The detention of 5 year old Liam Ramon was horrific. What has America become? |
Liam Conejo Ramos. We have all seen his picture, or by now we all should have seen the image of the adorable five-year-old in his bright blue hat, its floppy bunny ears so appropriate for a child whose middle name means “rabbit”. In the photo, he is wearing his Spider-Man backpack, which, like so many kids his age, he loves and is very proud of. And we know – or we should know – what happened to him.
On 20 January 2026, the pre-K student was seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on his way home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. His family, which had emigrated from Ecuador in 2024, had applied for political asylum. No order of deportation had been issued against them, nor had any of them – obviously, not little Liam – been accused of a crime.
He and his father, who had come to pick him up at school, were taken to Dilley, Texas, not far from San Antonio, where they were held in a facility that houses many child detainees. Unsurprisingly, Liam had a difficult time adjusting to life in prison. Visitors reported that he seemed pale, lethargic and depressed. A photo of him lying with his eyes closed in his father’s arms was immensely alarming.
He had been sleeping a lot and – like many kids at the center – had trouble eating the vile prison food. He kept asking what happened to his blue cap and his Spider-Man backpack, which had been taken from him and not returned by ICE........