Annotating the Judge's Decision in the Case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE

Annotating the Judge's Decision in the Case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE

Briefly

"One of the many unsettling images to emerge from the recent ICE surge in Minneapolis was that of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, in his blue bunny hat, standing in the January cold with the hand of a federal officer gripping his Spider-Man backpack. Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, an asylum seeker from Ecuador, were taken from Minnesota to Texas and held at a detention facility outside San Antonio."

"Lawyers working on their behalf filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, an ancient judicial principle forbidding the government from holding anyone in custody without providing a legally tenable reason for doing so. On Saturday, Fred Biery, a federal judge in Texas's Western District, granted their petition, freeing them. That's the boilerplate. But Judge Biery's decision which has gotten a lot of attention in legal circles and beyond is much more than a dry specimen of judicial reasoning."

"Judge Biery, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is known for his wit and writerly flair. His judicial order in a 2013 case involving San Antonio strip clubs is famous for its literary allusions (to bare, or not to bare) and its cheeky double entendres. A 2023 profile in San Antonio Lawyer magazine called him a judge with a little extra to say."