00:00As thousands of protesters in Minnesota continue to demand federal immigration agents withdraw
00:06from their state, a federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of a five-year-old boy
00:10and his father who were detained during an immigration raid.
00:14Liam Conejo-Ramos can be seen here in a now-viral photo wearing a blue bunny hat outside his
00:19house as federal agents stood nearby.
00:22He was one of four students detained this month in a Minneapolis suburb, according
00:26to the Columbia Heights Public School District. Two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old were also
00:31detained, a school district official had said. Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo-Arias,
00:37had entered the United States legally as asylum applicants from Ecuador, their lawyer had
00:41previously told Reuters. They had been sent to a family detention center in Dili, Texas,
00:47the lawyer said. U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro posted this photo of the pair at the Dili
00:52Center last week, saying he had visited them. Their lawyer and the Department of Homeland Security
00:57did not immediately return requests for comment. Separately, another Minnesota federal judge has
01:03declined to order a halt to President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
01:08State officials had brought the lawsuit, accusing federal agents of widespread civil rights abuses,
01:14including the killing of two U.S. citizens.
01:16In a Saturday ruling, the Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez said she was influenced
01:22by an appeals court decision last week. The court had blocked her earlier order for agents to rein in
01:28their tactics, such as tear gassing. Menendez said if her earlier order was thought to go too far in
01:34restricting law enforcement, then the new lawsuit to halt the entire operation was certainly beyond that.
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