Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have returned to their home in a Minneapolis suburb after being detained by US immigration officers and held at a detention facility in Texas, a lawmaker said.
A federal judge yesterday ordered the release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his son, whom immigration officers detained during a Minnesota raid.
US Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, wrote in a social media post that he picked them up last night at the detention facility and escorted them back to Minnesota today.
"Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack," Mr Castro said. "We won't stop until all children and families are home."
A photo that went viral last month shows Liam wearing a blue bunny hat outside his house with federal agents standing nearby. He was one of four students detained by immigration officials in a Minneapolis suburb, according to the Columbia Heights Public School District.
The Ecuadorean boy and his father, who entered the United States legally as asylum applicants, had been held in a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
US District Judge Fred Biery wrote in a ruling the case had its genesis in "the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children."
Judge Biery, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, cited the constitution's requirement that an arrest warrant must be based on a judge finding probable cause of a crime. The use of "administrative warrants" issued by immigration officials "is called the fox guarding the hen house," he wrote.
Democrats have called for reforms after large-scale enforcement operations in Minnesota and other states, and following two deadly shootings of US citizens in Minneapolis involving ICE agents.
Those demands by Democratic lawmakers include mandatory body cameras, the end to roving patrols and halting the use of face masks.
Funding for the Homeland Security Department has been held up as Republicans and Democrats continue negotiating over a DHS bill. "We'll be talking about that in the near future, "President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Some Republican mayors also see a need for reforms. "We're generally encouraged that the administration seems to be exploring that pivot," Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt told CBS's "Face the Nation".
Mayors are "caught in a little bit of an impossible situation" with federal immigration enforcers' presence in cities, Mr Holt said, adding events in Minneapolis threaten to erode the trust authorities have built over time with residents in cities.
Mr Holt spoke the day after Mr Trump ordered DHS to refrain from dealing with protesters unless federal property is threatened or local officials request help.
US judge denies Minnesota bid to suspend immigration sweeps
A US judge has delivered a blow to Minnesota's bid to force Immigration and Customs Enforcement to suspend its sweeping detention and deportation operation in the state that has left two US citizens dead and fueled massive protests.
Masked and heavily armed federal agents have swept through Minnesota communities seeking undocumented migrants, detaining thousands and shooting dead two US citizens in the process.
The heavy-handed campaign championed by Mr Trump has sparked outrage across the United States, with tens of thousands marching in Minnesota on Friday against the operation dubbed Metro Surge.
On Minnesota's bid to obtain a temporary restraining order to end the federal operation, judge Katherine Menendez wrote in a ruling that "ultimately, the court finds that the balance of harms does not decisively favor an injunction".
Minnesota argues that the month-long federal operation violated its sovereignty as a state.
Judge Menendez said she was not making a final judgment on the state's overall case in her decision, something that would follow arguments in court.
She also made no determination on whether the immigration crackdown in the state had broken the law.
The killings of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by masked, heavily armed agents sparked a nationwide outcry after which Mr Trump withdrew combative Customs and Border Protection commander Gregory Bovino and replaced him with his border point man Tom Homan who pledged to draw down the operation, with conditions.
Thousands attend protest march
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Minneapolis and students across the United States staged walkouts to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota.
Students and teachers abandoned classes from California to New York on a national day of protest, which came amid mixed messages from the Trump administration about whether it would de-escalate Operation Metro Surge.
Protesting the surge and the tactics used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, several thousand people gathered in downtown Minneapolis in sub-freezing temperatures, including families with small children, elderly couples and young activists.
Katia Kagan, wearing a "No ICE" sweatshirt and holding a sign demanding the agency leave the city, said she was the daughter of Russian Jews who immigrated to the US seeking safety and a better life.
"I'm out here because I’m going to fight for the American dream that my parents came here for," Ms Kagan said.
Kim, a 65-year-old meditation coach who asked that her last name not be used, called the surge a "full on fascist attack of our federal government on citizens".
Rock star Bruce Springsteen lent his voice to the protest, taking the stage at a fundraiser for Ms Good and Mr Pretti in downtown Minneapolis where he played his new song Streets of Minneapolis.
Protests stretched well beyond Minnesota as organisers forecast 250 demonstrations across 46 states and in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington under the slogan: "No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE."
Mr Trump in turn offered a vote of confidence for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees ICE.
Critics have called for her resignation but Mr Trump said on social media that Ms Noem "has done a really GREAT JOB!", asserting that "the border disaster that I inherited is fixed". Meanwhile, events in Minneapolis reverberated through the federal government.
Acting head of the Minneapolis FBI field office Jarrad Smith was removed from his post, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Mr Smith was reassigned to FBI headquarters in Washington, according to one of the sources.
The Minneapolis field office has been involved in the federal surge as well as investigations into Mr Pretti’s shooting and a church protest that led to charges against former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
The FBI arrested Mr Lemon yesterday and the Justice Department charged him with violating federal law during a protest inside a St Paul, Minnesota, church earlier this month.
His lawyer called the move an attack on press freedom.
After pleading not guilty, Mr Lemon told reporters: "I will not be silenced.
"I look forward to my day in court."
The New York Times, citing an internal ICE memo it reviewed, reported that federal agents were told this week they have broader power to arrest people without a warrant, expanding the ability of lower-level ICE agents to carry out sweeps rounding up suspected undocumented immigrants they encounter.
Backlash against the administration's immigration policy also threatened to spark a partial US government shutdown as Democrats in Congress opposed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
Weeks of viral videos showing the aggressive tactics of heavily armed and masked agents on the streets of Minneapolis have driven public approval of Mr Trump's immigration policy to the lowest level of his second term, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
As uproar over the ICE operation grew, Mr Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, was dispatched to Minneapolis, saying his officers would return to more targeted operations, rather than the broad street sweeps that have led to clashes with protesters.
Echoing protesters' sentiments, Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz questioned whether that would happen and said more drastic changes were needed.
"The only way to ensure the safety of the people of Minnesota is for the federal government to draw down their forces and end this campaign of brutality," Mr Walz said on X.
Mr Trump said earlier this week he wanted to "de-escalate a bit".
However when asked by reporters on Thursday if he was pulling back, the US president said: "Not at all."
In Aurora, Colorado, public schools closed yesterday due to large anticipated teacher and student absences.
The Denver suburb saw intense immigration raids last year after Mr Trump claimed it was a "war zone" overrun by Venezuelan gangs.
In Tucson, Arizona, at least 20 schools canceled classes in anticipation of mass absences.
At DePaul University in Chicago, protest signs read "sanctuary campus" and "fascists not welcome here".
High school students bearing anti-ICE signs staged a walkout in Long Beach, California.
In Brooklyn, a long parade of high school age protesters marched and chanted anti-ICE obscenities.
