5-year-old boy detained by ICE barely sleeps and eats little, says US deputy

5-year-old boy detained by ICE barely sleeps and eats little, says US congressman Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro says that Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy detained by ICE in Minnesota, is not eating well, sleeps most of the day and is very depressed because he misses his mother. This Wednesday (28), the parliamentarian visited the boy and his father, Adrian Arias, at the ICE detention center where they are held, in Dilley, Texas, and told more about the visit in an exclusive interview with GloboNews. Castro reports that the meeting lasted around 30 minutes and that he left there very worried about the child’s health and well-being. “During the entire meeting with his father, he didn’t wake up, he slept the entire time,” he reports. “He just wants to get out and go home.” READ MORE US court prohibits deportation of 5-year-old child detained by immigration agents; case sparked outrage US immigration agents detain 5-year-old child and use him as ‘bait’, says authority The boy’s mother lives in Minnesota, where he was detained. She is four months pregnant and, after her son’s arrest, had to go to the hospital for treatment. They would have spoken to her since they were detained, but calls there are expensive and there are communication limitations, he says. Liam’s case is not isolated. In the center, there are more than a thousand detainees, according to the parliamentarian. Among them, children of different ages. “The youngest is two months old. A baby that has been there for several days”, he says. “It’s very hard to see and hear the stories of traumatized children, who don’t understand why they are detained. Parents who are also traumatized by the situation. As a parent, I know that you try to protect your children, to help heal them when they are bad, and these parents are so hurt because they can’t do that for their children.” Castro says he requested the Department of Homeland Security to return to the detention center next Friday, along with other deputies – they must request at least 7 days before the intended date. The grandson of an orphaned Mexican immigrant who moved to the United States as a child, says that for many Americans the Trump administration’s actions against immigrants go against the country’s values ​​and the spirit on which America was built: “The US became the strongest and most prosperous country in the world not in spite of immigrants, but because of immigrants, and I think that is still true today.” For him, Liam and other children’s cases are a matter of humanity: “Whatever one’s political beliefs, as a parent, you see the photo and imagine your child in that situation, scared, vulnerable, being taken 1,300 miles away from home and left in Texas, and what that would do to him.” Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, is detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after arriving home from preschool on Tuesday, January 20, 2026 Ali Daniels via AP

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