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A federal judge on Saturday gave the Trump administration three days to release a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father from immigration detention in Texas following an emergency request.
Videos of Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, being taken into custody along with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis earlier this month sparked outrage.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, a Clinton nominee, wrote in his ruling that “the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” according to the order obtained by Fox News Digital.
He invoked the Declaration of Independence in the ruling, saying, “Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were: 1. ‘He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.'”
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He also cited the “pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment” that protects people from “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
“Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” he wrote. “That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”
He added, “Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.”
Biery said Ramos and his father could be deported, but added “that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.”
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He previously ordered a temporary block on their deportation.
While neighbors have claimed that the government used Ramos as “bait,” asking him to knock on the door to his house, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called that an “abject lie,” saying his father abandoned him in a running vehicle in their driveway.
“The facts in this case have NOT changed: ICE did NOT target or arrest a child,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration. As agents approached, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias fled on foot—abandoning his child.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., has accused ICE this week of “needlessly” detaining Ramos in Texas.
“They shipped him 1,300 miles to suffer, without his mother, in a squalid Texas detention center. And now he’s growing ill. Democrats are fighting to end this cruelty,” she wrote. “Liam is not a criminal. Let him go.”
McLaughlin also posted a statement from Dr. Sean Conley, acting director of DHS’ Office of Health Security and chief medical officer, in which he addressed the child’s condition.
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Conley said that a pediatrician examined Ramos and “found no medical concerns.”
“It is standard policy to provide medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility and access to necessary medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare many of these individuals have received in their entire lives,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and Peter Pinedo, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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