5-Year-Old Liam Is Sick In ICE Custody In Texas, Family Says

TEXAS — A 5-year-old Twin Cities child detained by federal immigration agents and sent to a Texas detention facility is now sick and showing signs of distress, according to his school district and a member of Congress who visited him this week.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a preschool student in the Columbia Heights school district, was detained last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and transported with his father to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to HuffPost.

Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, told the Huffington Post that she spoke with Liam’s mother on Tuesday and was alarmed by what she heard.

"Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not doing great right now," Stenvik said. "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."

Liam’s mother told MPR News earlier this week that her son has been vomiting, experiencing stomach pain, running a fever, and refusing to eat, blaming poor-quality food at the detention center.

Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the Dilley facility despite Arias having entered the country legally and having no criminal record, according to the family’s attorney.

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked their deportation.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, visited the detention center on Wednesday and met with Liam and his father.

"Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center," Castro in a statement. "I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him."

Castro said he spent about 30 minutes with the family and described the child as withdrawn and depressed.

"His dad said he hasn’t been himself and he’s been sleeping a lot," Castro said, adding that Liam was not awake during the visit.

Castro later said he plans to notify the Department of Homeland Security that he will return to the facility and urged other members of Congress to join him in monitoring conditions for detained children and families.

Attorneys familiar with the South Texas Family Residential Center have raised serious concerns about conditions there.

The conditions at the Texas facility holding are “absolutely abysmal,” attorney Eric Lee told MPR News.

“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” he said. “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.’”