The 5-year-old boy who spent nearly two weeks detained by immigration authorities now wakes up crying during the night, terrified his family could be separated again, his father told Noticias Telemundo.
The pair returned to Minneapolis on Saturday after a federal judge ordered they be released pending their asylum cases.
Liam Conejo Ramos, who was born in Ecuador, continued to relive the moments immigration officers appeared and handcuffed his father, Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, while his mother cried inside the family’s home, Conejo told Telemundo's Julio Vaqueiro on Thursday.
"He hasn't been the same since this all happened," he said. "He calls me when he wakes up and says, 'Daddy, Daddy,' so I have to go to him."
Jan. 20 had started much like any other day for the family, Conejo said. He had just pulled into his driveway after having picked up Liam from preschool when immigration agents descended on his property, he said.
He told his wife, who is pregnant with the couple’s third child, to stay inside. He worried that if she were detained, her health could suffer or their oldest child would be left without a parent to care for him, Conejo said.
He remembers one agent suggesting that Liam could knock on the front door to get whoever was inside the house out, Conejo said. Witnesses, including an employee from Liam’s school district, would later recall hearing similar discussions among the agents, leading to accusations that they were using the young boy as “bait.”
The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied using Ramos as “bait,” saying instead that Liam’s father ran off without him to evade capture and that his mother refused to take custody of him.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” DHS said in a previous statement.
Liam’s mother, Erika Ramos, sobbed as she watched in horror from the window, she said last week.
"I felt very helpless not being able to do anything, seeing all this, seeing my son crying, trembling and not knowing what was happening — a child of only 5 years old in the middle of so many ICE agents," Conejo said.
Liam and his father were taken into custody after the ordeal. The incident became a flash point in ongoing debates over whether immigration officials had gone too far in detaining a young boy.
An attorney for the family has said Liam and Conejo were following all “established protocols” for pursuing asylum and should never have been detained.
Their detention came between the high-profile killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 and both U.S citizens. Liam and his father returned home Saturday from a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, where two measles infections have since been confirmed.
In Minneapolis, Conejo and his family have remained in hiding, he said, along with an untold number of people who fear being detained by immigration officers. Liam’s older brother has not gone to school this week, and both Liam and his mother are experiencing health problems.
Liam has a fever and a cough, and Ramos experienced abnormal bleeding, Conejo said.
Conejo said he spent much of their detention trying to keep Liam calm. It was difficult to get news from the outside world, and calls to his wife were limited, he said. Conejo passed the time by telling Liam stories from “Bluey,” an animated children’s show about a family of blue heeler dogs, and recounting happy memories from family outings to the park.
Part of him wondered whether he would ever see his family again, Conejo said.
But Liam was scared and frequently asked what they had done wrong, where they were and what happened to the little blue knit hat he wore the day he was detained, Conejo said.
There wasn’t much he could say to his son, “except hug him and tell him everything would be OK,” Conejo said.
Worried about further upsetting his son, Conejo said, he was forced to bite back his own tears.
Liam has since been reunited with his hat and continues to wear it, even inside the house, his dad said Thursday. Asked how he might one day explain to Liam everything that has happened, Conejo said he would tell his son that he had become the face of hope and change.
"He was the global figure who did all this so that the voices of the people demanding freedom would be heard, especially those of the children who are still locked up," Conejo said. “I would tell him he was very brave and that I am very proud of him.”
