Minnesota Brothers from Same School as 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos Return Home from ICE Detention Center

Two elementary school students and their mother are back in Minnesota after being sent to an immigration detention center in Texas last week amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, school officials confirmed.

The boys — a second-grader and a fifth-grader at Valley View Elementary School — were released from the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, and flew back to Minnesota with their mother on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Columbia Heights Public Schools said in a statement obtained by the outlet.

According to the district, the brothers were brought to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis by their principal and other school staff at their mother’s request after she was detained there a week earlier. The boys were flown from Minnesota to Texas that afternoon and placed at the Dilley facility.

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, their principal and a Valley View staff member picked them up and brought them safely home, the district said.

“Mother and sons are in good health and eager to resume the boys’ schooling,” the district said, declining to identify them.

While the boys were held in the detention center, the district said they recognized another Valley View student — a fifth-grade girl — in the cafeteria. School officials said they had not heard from the girl, her mother, or stepfather since Jan. 9.

“School staff have been trying to reach them since that time and did not know where they were,” the district said. “While it is difficult to find out that they have been in this detention facility for almost a month now, district staff have been able to connect the family with legal representation.”

The district also believes a 17-year-old Columbia Heights High School student and her mother are being held at the same Dilley facility.

The two boys who returned Wednesday attend the same school as 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained by ICE agents along with his father on the way home from school on Jan. 20 — an incident that sparked outrage nationwide.

Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were also flown to the federal detention center in Dilley. The Department of Homeland Security has said Conejo Arias entered the country illegally in December 2024, but the family’s attorney has said they entered legally and are seeking asylum.

The father and son returned to Minnesota over the weekend after a federal judge ordered their release.

This week, the district also said another student, Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano — a fourth-grader at Highland Elementary School — and her mother would be released from the Dilley center.

Elizabeth was the first known student in the district detained, the district said. She and her mother were taken by ICE agents on their way to school on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to the district.

Representatives for ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the students or their parents on Thursday, Feb. 5.