A Judge on Saturday ordered the U.S. to release a 5-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention center where they were taken after being detained in a Minneapolis suburb last month.

Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack being surrounded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers, sparked even more outcry about U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. It also led to a protest at the family detention center and a visit by two Texas Democratic members of Congress.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling “the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children.” A Judge had previously ruled that the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, could not be removed from the U.S., at least for now.

Neighbours and school officials say that federal immigration officers in Minnesota 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 (DHS) 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.

During the January 28 visit with Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, the boy slept in the arms of his father, who said Liam was frequently tired and not eating well at the detention facility housing about 1,100 people, according to Castro.

Detained families report poor conditions like worms in food, fighting for clean water and poor medical care at the detention center since its reopening last year. In December, a report filed by ICE acknowledged they held about 400 children longer than the recommended limit of 20 days.

​The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment ‌to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation drive, U.S. media ​reported on Sunday (January 18, 2026).

The army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the northern State escalates, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed defense officials, adding that it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.

The White House told the Post in a statement that it is typical for the Pentagon “to be prepared for any decision the President may or may not make.” The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

President ​Donald Trump threatened on Thursday (January 15, 2026) to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if ⁠officials in the State do not stop protesters from targeting immigration officials after a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Threat of troops follows surge of immigration agents

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators ​and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ⁠I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

The soldiers subject to deployment specialise in cold-weather operations and are assigned to two U.S. Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska, ‌the Post and ABC News reported.

Confrontations between residents and federal officers have become increasingly tense ‌in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s most-populous city, after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, on January 7, 2026 as she was driving ‍away after being ordered to exit her car.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, has sent nearly 3,000 federal agents from ICE and Border Patrol to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul since early last week, as part of ‍a wave of interventions, mostly to cities run by Democratic politicians.

He has said troop deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland, Oregon, are necessary to fight crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters. But this month he said he was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, which have faced legal setbacks and challenges.

Local leaders have accused the president of federal overreach and of exaggerating isolated episodes of violence to justify sending in troops.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, against whom the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation, has mobilised the State’s National Guard to support local law enforcement ⁠and emergency management agencies, the state Department of Public Safety posted on X on Saturday (january 17, 2026).

Mr. Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal around the theft of federal funds intended for ​social-welfare programs in Minnesota as a rationale for sending immigration agents in. The President and administration officials have repeatedly ⁠singled out the State’s community of Somali immigrants.

The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the President the power to deploy the military or federalise National Guard troops inside the U.S. to quell domestic uprisings.

The law can be invoked when there are “unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages or rebellion” against federal authority. If the President deems those conditions have been met, he may ⁠use the armed forces to take actions “to enforce those laws or suppress the rebellion.