Liam Ramos and his father were detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and taken into custody on January 20, shortly after returning home from preschool.
Since then, they’ve been held in Dilley ICE detention center in Texas and Texas congressman Joaquin Castro has since spoken out after visiting the facility.
Castro took to Twitter after visiting the center where he met with not only Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, but some of the 1,100 people being held there. This includes ‘countless more children and families who have done nothing wrong and should not be detained’.
In a video post, Castro revealed he spent around 30 minutes with Liam and his father and made sure to update those who’ve been ‘worried sick’ about him, from teachers and classmates to his family, legal team, and mom too.
However, he had to update the family to the father’s reports Liam ‘hasn’t been himself’.
While reassuring Liam ‘wasn’t in any kind of emergency or anything physically,’ Castro revealed the child has been ‘sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad’, so much so Liam ‘wasn’t awake’ when Castro visited.
And the five-year-old is reported as having asked his dad a heartbreaking question.
Castro explained they let Liam’s father know how much his classmates ‘miss him’ and how they’ve ‘kept his space and his desk for him and they’re waiting for him to get back’.
Liam’s father reportedly explained how much the preschooler wants to go back to school and be reunited with his family and community.
Castro added: “Liam said that he misses his classmates and his family and wants to be back at school.”
And Liam has reportedly been ‘asking about that hat and that backpack’ – the ones he was wearing at the time ICE agents detained him and his father.
The congressman is ‘concerned about his mental state‘.
And Liam is one of many children being held at the center, Castro having spoken to many parents who similarly spoke about their kids ‘experiencing deep depression and anxiety, people losing weight – both because of the bad food but also because of their mental state’.
Castro added: “With Liam, I very bluntly told the ICE officials there […] that the country is against what’s going on, that Liam needs to be released, that the country demands his release and that no child that’s five years old should be in detention like that.”
Castro argued Liam’s family legally came to the US and followed the ‘orderly and official way’, but had the ‘rug pulled from out’ of underneath them by Donald Trump and the administration.
Speaking of the detention center, Castro argued: “There isn’t a single criminal over there. Because if you commit a crime, they separate you from your daughter or child.”
Reflecting on the 1,100 in detainment as ‘hard-working people, mothers, fathers and labourers,’ Castro alleged there’s also children in there as young as two months old.
Castro revealed plans to check in on Liam again, alongside the many other children and families there’.
“Liam did not look well. My staff and I are very concerned about him,” he added.
He resolved: “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.
“[…] I ask my colleagues in Congress — House and Senate — to join me. I ask the American people to continue speaking up. Your voice makes a difference. #FreeLiam.”
