The 5-year-old boy used by ICE agents as “bait” to illegally capture his own family in Minneapolis last week is now sick and deteriorating inside a Texas detention facility, according to his school superintendent.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights public schools, spoke to Liam Conejo Ramos’ mother on Tuesday and delivered grim news to HuffPost: “Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not doing great right now. He’s been ill. I’ve been told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.”
THE DETAILS: Liam’s mother described his condition to MPR News on Monday: “Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality. He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.”
The kindergartener and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas—despite Arias entering the country legally and having no criminal record, according to the family’s attorney. A federal judge temporarily blocked their deportation late Tuesday.
The conditions at Dilley are “absolutely abysmal,” according to attorney Eric Lee, who represents other detained families there. “They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” Lee told Minnesota Public Radio. “One of my clients had appendicitis, collapsed in the hallway, was vomiting from pain, and the officials told him, ‘Take a Tylenol and come back in three days.'”
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) visited the facility Wednesday and posted a photo showing Liam either sleeping or lying weakly in his father’s arms. “Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center,” Castro wrote. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.”
In a separate video, Castro said the 5-year-old “wasn’t in any kind of emergency or anything, physically,” but that his father reported he “hasn’t been himself and he’s been sleeping a lot, because he’s been depressed and sad.” Castro added: “Liam actually was not awake during our visit.”
WHY IT MATTERS: This is a pre-school student—a U.S. citizen’s classmate—now vomiting and feverish in a facility notorious for abusive conditions, all because ICE agents grabbed him and his legally-present father off a Minneapolis street. His mother is “incredibly distraught.” His superintendent is “very, very concerned.” And the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown just made a sick child its latest casualty.