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In a significant development, a 5-year-old boy and his father, previously detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, have been released and returned to their home state under the escort of Texas Representative Joaquin Castro. This follows a judge’s order that facilitated their release from a Texas detention facility.
The pair had initially been apprehended in a suburb of Minneapolis on January 20, subsequently being transferred to the detention center located in Dilley, Texas. The circumstances of their detention had sparked considerable outrage, amplified by images of the young boy clad in a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack, surrounded by immigration officials. These images became emblematic of the Trump administration’s stringent immigration policies in Minneapolis.
Confirming the release, Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for Rep. Castro, stated that the congressman personally picked them up from the Dilley facility on Saturday night, ensuring their safe return to Minnesota on Sunday. Castro’s intervention underscores the political and humanitarian concerns surrounding such detentions.
Efforts to obtain a comment from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the release of the father and son have, as of yet, gone unanswered. The lack of an immediate response continues to leave questions about the broader implications and future handling of similar cases under current immigration enforcement strategies.
Images of the young boy wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by immigration officers drew outrage about the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.
Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an “abject lie.” It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.
Castro wrote a letter to Liam while they were on the plane to Minnesota, in which he told the young boy he has “moved the world.”
“Your family, school and many strangers said prayers for you and offered whatever they could do to see you back home,” Castro wrote. A photo of the letter was posted on social media. “Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t your home. America became the most powerful, prosperous nation on earth because of immigrants not in spite of them.”
Photos on Castro’s social media showed Liam wearing his blue bunny hat and with a Pikachu backpack
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., welcomed the boy back to Minnesota, saying in a social media post that he “should be in school and with family — not in detention,” adding, “Now ICE needs to leave.”