Feds Fast-Track Deportation of Boy, 5, and Family

The 5-year-old Minneapolis boy whose arrest in a bunny hat drew global attention is again at the center of a high-stakes immigration fight, with his family now facing fast-tracked deportation. Federal officials are moving to expel Liam Conejos Ramos and his relatives to Ecuador by using an "expedited removal" process that allowed an immigration judge to dismiss their asylum case without a full hearing, according to the family's lawyers. Liam, his 13-year-old brother, and their parents entered the US legally in December 2024 to seek asylum, the attorneys say. His mother is now pregnant with the family's third child.

Liam and his father were detained in a January sweep and sent to a Texas family detention center before a federal judge ordered their release, criticizing the operation as poorly executed and quota-driven, the New York Times reports. Last month, however, the government successfully asked to end the family's asylum case. Paschal Nwokocha, an immigration lawyer working with the family, says a judge ordered their removal weeks ago but they didn't make the information public until Wednesday, when lawyers appealed to the the Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals to reinstate the asylum claim, CBS News reports. Last month, administration officials denied that deportation was being fast-tracked.

The board, largely made up of Trump appointees, has no set timeline to act. If the appeal fails, the family could be swiftly deported, though lawyers say the appeals process could last months or even years. "The government was bent on removing this family from the United States," Nwokocha told MPR News last month. "We were able to get additional time to do what we need to do in court." On Wednesday, he told CBS that lawyers plan to "vigorously" defend the family. "The challenge we have is that they have not had a chance to actually tell their story to an immigration judge," he said. "The judge terminated it without the benefit of them presenting the merits of their case, to the court."